


The Cheese AU

by NiuMiu



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: AU, Dragons, Gen, More characters will appear at some point, magic?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-11-03
Packaged: 2018-08-07 12:48:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7715443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NiuMiu/pseuds/NiuMiu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Basically Tsuna and his friends fighting dragons with ridiculous weapons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“I don’t believe we are doing this.” Tsuna said.

“Hahaha! Yeah! It’s exciting isn’t it?” Yamamoto replied.

“N-no! We’re going to die!” He yelled desperately.

Of all the things that could go wrong on his already messed up life, he never thought he would be sent to fight the dragon that protected his village.

Armed with only a cheese wheel as a shield.

“Ah, don’t worry Tsuna, we’ll be fine!” Yamamoto tried to reassure him.

He carried a salami as a sword and seemed very confident that they would survive.

The only reason why Tsuna didn’t try to run when Iemitsu, his father, told him he was the descendant of a powerful dragon tamer was that Kyoko, his crush, gave him a hopeful and bright smile that made his mind shut down. He really thought he would be receiving a powerful magical weapon that could help fighting against the dragon, and when Iemitsu said that Yamamoto, his childhood friend was also a descendant from a dragon tamer, Tsuna really believed that they were going to be fine.

Then he saw the weapons they were going to use.

“We won’t be fine! I’m carrying a cheese wheel and you’re carrying a salami!”

Tsuna was almost crying. He didn’t want to die so young. All he wanted to do was to have a peaceful and boring life.

“Ma, Tsuna, calm down.” Yamamoto said hugging Tsuna by the shoulders with one arm. “Your shield can repel dragon’s fire, and if I hit each of the dragon’s paws with my sword I can put it to sleep.” Tsuna was sure that that wasn’t true, but Yamamoto’s smile had a relaxing effect on him. Yamamoto noticed that his plan had worked, so he released Tsuna.

“Look, we’re almost there. That’s the entrance to the dragon’s lair.” Yamamoto pointed to a cavern on the base of the volcano that was on the outskirts of their village.

Tsuna trembled with fear but Yamamoto continued to walk towards it. Tsuna considered running, but Yamamoto wouldn’t follow him, and he couldn’t let his friend alone.

“Yamamoto! Wait!” He shouted while running after him.

They entered the cave, and after a while walking through the darkness they heard a roar. The entire place trembled and stones started falling on them.

“Whoa! Watch out!” Yamamoto yelled and then pulled Tsuna away from a huge stone that almost fell on him.

“That was close…”

“Yeah… I think we’re getting closer to the dragon.”

“Eh? Can you see anything in this darkness?”

Yamamoto laughed.

“No, it’s just getting hotter.”

Tsuna sweat dropped as Yamamoto continued to walk. He just hoped that if they survived, they could find the exit again. After a while, Tsuna started seeing a faint light far away.

“Look! I think that’s the magma!” Yamamoto pointed out.

“Eh!? How do you know?”

“Because I come here with my father some times. Not to this cave. We go to another that is on the other side.”

“Why?”

“To practice swordsmanship of course!” Yamamoto said as if Tsuna had asked a silly question.

“B-but your father is a fisherman! And you’re one too!”

“Ah, I forgot I didn’t tell you.” Yamamoto said then laughed. “My father is a great swordsman. We come from a lineage of talented swordsmen, and he is teaching me his techniques.” He concluded scratching the back of his head with a sheepish grin. Tsuna was about to reply when a great tremor threatened to make the entire cave collapse.

“C’mon Tsuna!” Yamamoto shouted and they ran to the light.

“Ugh! I can’t fucking believe this!” A voice barked.

When they finally entered the room, Tsuna saw the owner of the voice. A huge dragon with obsidian scales.

“Ugh! Shit!” The dragon shouted again and furiously clawed the cave’s wall, making it tremble once again.

Tsuna and Yamamoto tried to hold their balance as they waited for the tremors to stop.

“Why is…” The dragon started saying, but Yamamoto cut him.

“Hey!”

If Tsuna was scared, even before entering the cave, he almost fainted when the dragon’s golden eyes locked on him.

“What is the meaning of this?” The dragon asked with a burning glare.

“Tsuna wants to speak with you!” Yamamoto said slapping Tsuna’s back, which made him trip and almost fall on his face.

Iemitsu said that Tsuna’s weapon was the strongest, so he was the leader of the mission. Even if his weapon was a freaking cheese wheel, Yamamoto believed on that.

The dragon seemed much more annoyed but waited for Tsuna to speak.

“U-um… We would… Really, appreciate if you could… Um… C-calm down m-mister dragon.”

“Are you seriously trying to tell me what to do? Stop wasting my time boy, don’t you see I’m on a difficult situation here?” The dragon replied.

“What happened?” Yamamoto asked.

The dragon snorted.

“I don’t expect that you humans understand the gravity of this situation. I lost my hat.” The dragon said and then took some distance from the wall.

There, Tsuna could see a hole, and inside it a small black hat. How could a dragon use a hat that had the perfect size for a human head?

“Y-you can’t continue to do this! The volcano will end up erupting and our village will be destroyed!” Tsuna yelled.

The dragon narrowed his eyes.

“I can do what I want.”

“Forget it Tsuna, he’s not going to listen.” Yamamoto said and held the salami on his hands, like a sword, and then charged on the dragon.

Tsuna couldn’t stop him, and he hit one of the dragon’s paws.

The dragon roared and turned back to them.

“Grr! What is this?”

He looked at Yamamoto holding the salami and then he saw the cheese.

“You must be kidding me.” The dragon said.

“We cannot let you destroy our village!” Yamamoto said.

“You must be fucking kidding me. I don’t care who you are, if you come to my lair, and try to fight me with a cheese and a salami you are going to die.”

The dragon drew a deep breath, preparing to breathe fire on them.

“Yamamoto, no!” Tsuna yelled and tried to run to his friend. He ended up tripping and falling on the ground with the cheese in front of him.

He closed his eyes, already waiting for the end to come, when nothing happened. He opened his eyes again and saw that the cheese was repelling the fire.

A cheese wheel saved them from a dragon’s fire breath. Tsuna was going to cry.

“Nice defense Tsuna! I owe you one!” Yamamoto said helping Tsuna get up from the ground.

The dragon was surprised when he saw that they were still alive, and Yamamoto used that moment to hit another paw.

The dragon roared and quickly recovered, hitting Yamamoto and pinning him on the ground with one paw. Yamamoto ended up releasing his salami and it rolled on Tsuna’s direction.

“I don’t know what kind of sorcery is this, but I’m going to kill you and then your friend here.” The dragon said.

Tsuna knew that they were going to fail, but he thought of his family and friends back on the village, and of Yamamoto, who had faith on him.

He took the salami on the ground and charged on the dragon’s back paws. He couldn’t think of seeing his friend die without doing nothing.

Tsuna charged on the dragon’s paws raising his shield to deflect the flames that it breathed on him.

Incredibly, he managed to hit the right paw, but then the dragon hit Tsuna with its tail right on his stomach, making him loose his breath and fly onto a wall.

At the last second, Tsuna had the brilliant idea of throwing the salami on the last paw.

Luckily, he didn’t miss, and the dragon roared one last time before falling on its side, freeing Yamamoto.

Tsuna’s vision was blurry and he didn’t realize what had happened. Yamamoto rushed to his side.

“Tsuna! Are you okay?” He asked worried.

“Hm… Are we still alive?”

Yamamoto laughed.

“Yeah! You saved me again! Whoa, you were amazing Tsuna!”

Tsuna didn’t feel amazing. His head was spinning and his ribs hurt, but at least once in his life he had been lucky.

“But we can’t count this a victory yet. As long as that hat is there this dragon is going to do this again.” Yamamoto said helping Tsuna get up again.

The hole was beyond Tsuna’s reach, but Yamamoto seemed tall enough to reach it.

“I think you can reach it Yamamoto…”

“Yeah, I think I can, but the hole is too small and the hat is deep inside…”

Tsuna looked at it for a while and realized that Yamamoto really wouldn’t be able to reach the hat. What were they going to do?

“Ah! I know! I can lift you there, and then you take the hat!”

“Eh!? I-I think that could work…”

Without waiting for any other confirmation, Yamamoto raised Tsuna on his shoulders. The world spun for a second but then he recovered and crawled inside the hole until he reached the hat. Tsuna then crawled out and Yamamoto extended his arms to help him get down.

With his feet once again on the ground, Tsuna looked at the dragon, who was sleeping peacefully.

“So we just leave the hat here?” He asked.

“Yep. It would be better it we left it near him, so when he wakes up he doesn’t freak out.”

Tsuna really didn’t want to go near the dragon again, but he already was holding the hat, so he just walked to it.

The dragon’s hot breath almost pushed Tsuna away, but he managed to get closer to its immense head. When he left the hat on the ground the dragon snorted, throwing some sparkles on the ground and making Tsuna startle and Yamamoto laugh.

They took their “weapons” before leaving, and Tsuna thought that never again he wanted to fight a dragon. Especially using a cheese wheel.


	2. Chapter 2

It have been some weeks since Tsuna and Yamamoto calmed the dragon that protects their village.

When they returned from their battle there was a big celebration and for one entire week people gathered in front of Tsuna’s house to compliment him, hold his hand or just stalk him. The last kind of people made him very nervous.

He was very happy because now people called him hero, instead of useless.

“Hero Tsuna.” He muttered to himself while walking to the house of the village’s ancient, Timoteo.

He liked how the title sounded, but he liked even more that no one tried to make him take that damned cheese home.  
Tsuna suspected though, that that situation was going to change, since Timoteo, who he affectionately called grandpa, had called him to his home.

The last thing that Tsuna wanted was to fight a dragon again. The first time had been terrifying and he suspected they just survived by pure luck. Luck didn’t work all the time.

He knocked at the door of Timoteo’s house and one of his assistants opened to him.

“The ancient is on the library.” The man told him.

To the library then. He thought and nodded in response.

He walked through the halls of the home to the library. He had gone to that house many times when he was younger so he knew where all the rooms where. He was relieved to know that nothing on the house of his grandpa had changed.

When he reached the doors of the library he heard voices coming from inside. One he recognized as Timoteo’s, and the other he had the vague idea that he had heard before.

Tsuna knocked at the door, not knowing if it was okay for him to enter the room while Timoteo was busy. The voices went silent and Tsuna cold sweated.

“Who is it?” Timoteo asked.

Tsuna opened the big doors and poked his head inside.

“It’s me, Tsuna.” He saw that the old man sat on his usual chair with his cane in hand, but couldn’t see the person he was talking with.

“Ah, Tsuna! Good timing! Please, enter.” Timoteo said.

Tsuna calmed down a bit and fully opened the doors, entering the room, then he saw the owner of the second voice.

It was a tall man wearing strange black clothes and a black hat. The man turned to look at him with a hand on his hips. Tsuna saw that his nails were black and he had black eyeliner around his golden eyes.

All the calm Tsuna previously felt vanished at the stranger’s enigmatic stare.

“Y-you called me grandpa?” He said turning to Timoteo and trying to ignore that unnerving stranger.

“Yes, I don’t think I thanked you for saving our village.” Timoteo replied with a smile.

“Y-you d-did… O-on the village’s celebration…”

“Ah, it’s true! I’m sorry; my memory seems to get worse as I age.”

“So this is the hero?” The strange man asked.

“Yes, this is our hero.” Timoteo said. “But I think you’ve met before?”

Tsuna resisted the urge to run from the stranger’s intense gaze and instead focused on trying to remember where they could’ve met before.

The golden eyes, the black nails, the voice and that hat…

“Ah!” He said and both man raised their eyebrows, waiting for an answer. “I’m sorry; I don’t think we’ve met before."

Timoteo seemed a bit disappointed but the other man didn’t give away any emotion.

“Tsuna…” Timoteo started saying, but was cut off by the man.

“It’s true, we haven’t met before.”

He walked to Tsuna and extended a hand. “My name is Reborn.”

Tsuna cold sweated but shook his hand. “I-I’m Tsunayoshi b-but everyone calls me Tsuna.”

“Hm…” Reborn didn’t release his hand and Tsuna tried to focus his attention past his intense gaze.

Timoteo coughed. “Since I’ve already thanked you, you may go Tsuna. I’m sorry for wasting your time.”

Reborn released Tsuna’s hand and Tsuna finally could breathe properly.

“U-um… D-don’t worry grandpa… Bye!” Tsuna said and quickly left the room. That strange person was scary.

After Tsuna left the room, Timoteo turned to his guest.

“So, what do you think?” He asked.

“They are going to die.” Reborn replied.

“They managed to defeat you.”

“I was enraged, I barely remember what happened.”

Timoteo pondered that that was true. The more time a dragon spent enraged the weaker they became.

“If this strange character you mentioned tries to enrage another dragon, we will need them. And they will need someone that knows how this works.”

“No deal Nono. I’m here just because I respect you, but if the fate of the world is on the hands of those two idiots… I advise you to choose where you want to be buried already.”

“They have potential.”

“I know of a pleasant place that you would like.”

“Reborn.”

Reborn sighed. “You won’t accept a no, will you?”

Timoteo smiled. “That’s how I defeated you once.”

A feat that made Timoteo feel proud but that no one knew.

Reborn crossed his arms. “If I’m going to do this, it’ll be my way.”

Timoteo really didn’t expect Reborn to take anyone’s orders.

“Deal.” He said.

Reborn uncrossed his arms and smirked.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I’m going to observe my new victims… I mean… Pupils.” He said and left the room without waiting for an answer.

Timoteo sighed. Poor Tsunayoshi.

Not long after Reborn left, Ganauche entered the library. He seemed to be worried.

“What do we do now Timoteo?” He asked.

“We pray, my friend, and hope that they survive Reborn.”

“But Reborn isn’t enraged anymore.”

“That is what worries me.”


	3. Chapter 3

Tsuna laid on his bed with his arms behind his head. He just had had lunch and was feeling very sleepy. 

As he closed his eyes, he remembered what happened earlier, when he had gone to Timoteo’s home. He could almost see the golden eyes staring back at him from the darkness of his closed eyelids.

He startled and opened his eyes again; a shiver ran down his spine. Where they had met before? Tsuna didn’t know, and he hoped that that man went back to wherever he came from, because he was scary.

Don’t even know why I’m thinking about this. Tsuna thought as he sighed and closed his eyes again. This time nothing stared back at him from the darkness.

He was half-asleep when his mom called him.

“Tsuuuuuuu!”

He startled and fell from his bed. His face hit the ground and he held his nose on his hands.

“Ah! I’m here! I’m here!” He yelled back.

“There’s someone here to see you!”

Tsuna sat and sighed. He liked that everyone thought he was a hero, but he would like even more if people could let him sleep. No one ever came to see him in the middle of the day before he fought the dragon.

“I’m going.” He muttered.

He got down the stair slowly, not awake yet, when he saw his mom on the corridor. She was blushing and smiling. She didn’t see him approaching, probably because she was speaking with someone.

Many people visited him lately, and while his mother was always happy to have guests, Tsuna didn’t remember to see her that way.

“Mom, who…”

“Ah! He’s here!” Nana said and grabbed him by the shoulders.

Tsuna was still sleepy so the only thing he knew was that somehow his mother spun him and threw him on the couch.

“You two wait here, I’ll bring some coffee!” She chirped and then left the room.

Tsuna closed his eyes and waited for his head to stop spinning.

When he opened his eyes again, the first thing he saw was the golden eyes again. He blinked a few times to make sure that he was not hallucinating, and when he decided that he wasn’t, his eyes widened.

The same stranger from Timoteo’s house was there. Sitting in front of him. In his house.

He tensed. The scary guy was giving him the same look that he gave before.

“So, this is what a hero do? Sleep all day?” Reborn said.

Tsuna didn’t know how to reply, as he was too nervous to even think.

“Cat got your tongue?” Reborn insisted. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice.

“I-I…”

“You?” Reborn asked raising an eyebrow.

“I d-don’t sleep all day.”

Reborn kept waiting for an answer. Tsuna was cold sweating.

“I help mom, on the kitchen…”

“Do you cook?”

‘No, no.” Nana, who had been hearing the conversation, and entered the room with two coffee cups said. “Sometimes he washes the dishes for me, but he always end up breaking something.”

She giggled and put the cups on a small table.

“People used to call him useless because he couldn’t do anything right, but I always thought that he was just a bit clumsy because he was growing up. He had always been mom’s little hero!”

Tsuna blushed and Nana ruffled his hair, before going to the kitchen again, claiming she was going to bring cake to them.

When Tsuna looked to Reborn again, he was smirking and had a strange gleam on his eyes. Tsuna had a bad feeling about this.

“Useless.” Reborn said.

“Eh? I-I’m not…”

“Defeating a dragon that had been enraged for months don’t makes you a hero. You’re still useless.”

Tsuna flinched. That was uncalled for.

Reborn sighed. “I don’t know what the ancient saw on you.”

“Eh? The… grandpa? What are you talking about?”

“The other sacred dragons on the world had gone silent. It’s been a while since anyone heard anything from them.”

“What that have to do with anything?”

“When a sacred dragon gets enraged, it isolates itself on its lair.”

Not again. Tsuna thought.

“B-but they’re not close. They’re not our problem…”

“Silence.” Reborn glared at Tsuna and it was so scary that he wanted to run and hide.

“The dragon that is enraged loses its power gradually with time, but if it is enraged for too much time… The situation change.” Reborn leaned forward to look Tsuna in the eyes.

“It loses its mind and its power increases exponentially. A beast that has destruction as its only goal. It leaves its lair and ravages everything that it finds on its way. It won’t stop at anything; it destroys everything.”

Tsuna’s eyes were wide and his heart was beating fast. He looked at his hands to avoid Reborn’s gaze.

“That’s much responsibility for me I… I can’t do it. I’m useless, I can’t save the world.”

“The world is indeed very unlucky to have you as its savior.”

Tsuna looked up and Reborn had straightened on his seat. His gaze was distant.

“There must be other people who can do it…”

“There are.”

Tsuna breathed relieved. “Oh thank-”

“We must search for them. It will be stupid to go look for the dragons without the other dragon tamers’ descendants.”

“Eh?! We?!”

“Sadly someone will have to teach you how everything works, and make sure that you don’t die, since the world is depending on you. That means I’m your tutor.”

“You’re my what?!”

“I’ll make you the strongest dragon tamer since Primo.”

“I’m not a dragon tamer! I can’t save the world! Ahhh!” Tsuna said holding his head on his hands.

“Stop being so pathetic.”

“I can’t stop being pathetic, I am pathetic! I’m not a dragon tamer; I’m not even a hero!” Tsuna yelled.

“I agree with you.”

Tsuna looked up with tears on his eyes. Reborn was looking at him with the same enigmatic stare from the first time.

“You’re pathetic and don’t have any trait needed for a dragon tamer or a hero.” He said. “But it’s because I’m your tutor that you will save the world.”

Looking at Tsuna’s wide eyes, Reborn concluded that he was never so serious about anything like he was at that moment.   
Wanting or not, believing or not, crying or not, Reborn would make Tsuna the greatest dragon tamer of all the times.


	4. Chapter 4

Takeshi was fishing with his father.

He threw the net on the water, and the thoughts ran through his mind like the waves on the ocean. He always thought well whenever he was fishing or practicing with his sword after all.

After pulling the net, he noticed that there were less fish than usual.

“How are things going over there Takeshi?” His father shouted from the other side of the boat.

“Could be better old man.” He shouted back.

There could be less fish on the waters, but the amount was still enough to sustain them.

“I bet this have something to do with the dragon; it’s all about the dragons. A good thing that you and your friend calmed it. Now things will get better for us.”

Takeshi smiled and shouted back a “Yeah.”

The entire village was praising Tsuna for defeating the dragon. They weren’t praising Takeshi as much as much, because when they returned to the village that day, he made sure to tell everyone the truth. That Tsuna saved him during the battle with the dragon.

He finally pulled the net entirely from the water, and his father told him they could rest for the day.

Takeshi sat on the boat’s deck and watched as the waves came and gone.

Tsuna didn’t know why Takeshi praised him so much. After all, he also helped fight the dragon.

What Tsuna didn’t know was that Takeshi admired him for a long time. Since they first met, more precisely.

It was hard for him to forget that day.

Takeshi had been playing alongside the shore of the river that ran near the village. 

His father had advised him against doing so when he was fishing, but Takeshi felt generally so alone, even with the amount of friends that he already had, that the only thing that could cheer him up was playing by the river.

The river’s current seemed to be slow, and Takeshi really didn’t expect slipping up on a stone the moment he stepped on the water.

He knew how to swim, so he was able to keep his head above the water. However, every time he tried to swim back to the shore, the current, that was definitely stronger than it looked, pulled him more and more.

Takeshi fought with all he had to get out of the water, and lost track of time.

He really didn’t know for how long he had been swimming, he just knew that he was getting tired.

Suddenly he thought that maybe he wouldn’t be able to get out of the water on his own, that he would drown.

Takeshi pushed away those thoughts; he refused to lose his calm, but when he tried once again swimming to the shore, something caught his leg. It was probably some algae, but Takeshi believed that it was death’s hand pulling him down.  
He wasn’t afraid though. He was in fact, laughing internally of his own stupidity.

At least he would be with his mother once again. However, he couldn’t help but feel upset about his father, since now he was going to be alone.

Takeshi was on the verge of exhaustion, but kept fighting to keep his head outside the water. At some point he started asking himself if his face was only wet or if he was crying.

He finally decided to stop fighting, and let himself submerge one last time. However, after a little more than a minute without breathing, the agony that replaced the lack of air on his lungs made him emerge once again.

That was when he saw Tsuna.

Iemitsu and Nana decided that that was a great day to have a picnic. They were having a great time together, so they didn’t notice when Tsuna silently went to play by the river. They also didn’t notice the moment that a squirrel appeared and startled him.

Tsuna ran along the river crying. He didn’t notice that he was getting farther from his parents.

When he finally stopped to wipe his tears, he looked at the river, and his and Takeshi’s eyes met.

Takeshi called for help, but Tsuna was frozen. He didn’t know how to swim.

Takeshi’s hope vanished quickly when Tsuna disappeared on the trees. He didn’t hate that unknown boy though. If he jumped on the water to try to save Takeshi, he would probably end up drowning too.

However, he was very surprised when he saw Tsuna reappear, this time carrying a long branch. He extended it to Takeshi, and he grabbed one of its ends.

Tsuna tried to pull him, but Takeshi noticed that the algae were too entangled on his leg, and Tsuna wasn’t strong enough to pull him.

At this point, the branch that Tsuna held merely helped keep Takeshi’s head out of the water.

Tsuna started screaming, calling for help, as loud as he could. After a few minutes without any answer, Takeshi lost his hope again, but Tsuna didn’t stop.

Even after his throat started burning, and his arms became numb, Tsuna didn’t stop. After a few hours, Tsuna’s parents finally found them, and Iemitsu pulled Takeshi out of the water.

Later that day, Takeshi’s father thanked Iemitsu for saving his son, but deep inside Takeshi knew that his hero was Tsuna.

A few days after the incident, when Tsuna finally recovered his voice and Takeshi fully recovered from the experience, they met again and were rarely seen separated.

The boat finally reached the shore and Takeshi jumped out, to help tie it to the harbor.

“Takeshi.” A voice called.

Takeshi looked at its direction and saw the man that had been training Tsuna lately.

Takeshi looked at his father and he nodded in response.

“Yo.” Takeshi said releasing the ropes of the boat.

“I need to speak with you.” Reborn said.

“Sure.” Takeshi replied smiling.

Reborn then explained to him the situation and Takeshi listened carefully.

“So, Tsuna will travel the world to fight the other dragons?” Takeshi finally asked.

Reborn nodded.

“Ok! I just need to speak with my old man and then I’ll go with him.”

It was really Reborn’s intention to ask him that, but Takeshi’s answer surprised him.

“It could be dangerous.” He said.

“I know,” Takeshi replied grinning. “But Tsuna is my best friend, I can’t leave him alone.”

“You two seem very different. How is he your best friend?”

“Hahaha! He saved my life.”

“Hm… I heard the story; he just held a branch and yelled.”

Takeshi had heard that argument before.

“Yeah, but he was the only one there when I needed.”

“He wasn’t even strong enough to pull you out of the water.”

He also had heard that one.

“Yes, but even if he wasn’t strong enough to save me, he stood there. He didn’t give up on me. He did his best to save me, and even if his best was just ‘hold a branch and yell’, it was all I needed.” Takeshi said smiling and then bid farewell.

Reborn watched with smirk as Takeshi went back to help his father.

He wondered if the other descendants would be as interesting as Takeshi was.


	5. Chapter 5

Tsuna was walking on the village’s fair. He loved it. All of it. The people, the music, the events and the sweets. Specially the sweets.

He visited all the sweets stands that he could, and was a bit impressed that Reborn, who had been following him the entire time, didn’t try to ruin his fun.

The tutor made his life a living hell during the last days, which made Tsuna very suspicious of why didn’t he try to ruin his day until the moment. However, he was not going to ask anything anytime soon. Maybe Reborn was also happy because of the fair and forgot about the training.

That was what Tsuna hoped.

Thirty minutes and three bags full of sweets after, Tsuna had more sweets in his arms than he ever had in his life. People in the village were still worshipping him, and because of that, they were giving him things free.

“I think I can’t carry any more sweets.” He said absentmindedly.

“Are you asking for help?” Reborn replied.

Tsuna was happy that the sweets were in front of his face, because he was sure that Reborn was giving him that creepy smirk again.

“N-no…” Asking any help from him meant having to pay for it with pain.

Reborn didn’t reply, but he knew he was still there.

“Reborn.”

“Hm?”

“Why are you following me? You can go anywhere you like in this fair-”

Tsuna abruptly hit something and fell on the ground, almost buried by the sweets that fell on him.

“Watch where you’re going.” Reborn said.

“You could’ve warned me!” Tsuna shouted back.

Now that his vision was clear again, he tried to see what he had hit. 

A shirtless man with white hair and muscular body was looking at him and the sweets that were now on the ground with wide eyes. There was something in his gaze, between shocked and offended that made Tsuna sweat.

“O-oh, I-I’m sorry s-sir. I-I couldn’t see where I was going-”

“Because of the sweets.” Reborn cut him.

Tsuna shot him a glare. He had that mischievous smirk on his face. What was he planning?

“You like sweets?” The man asked him.

“Eh?! Y-yes…?”

“Then I have to show you something!” He shouted and yanked Tsuna from the ground. It was so sudden that Tsuna didn’t know how to react.

He dragged Tsuna a few paces away from where the sweets were and released him before he could start protesting.

“There’s nothing sweeter than the gifts that Mother Nature gives us!” He yelled again and Tsuna’s ears started to suffer.

He pointed to a stand and Tsuna barely saw the incredible amount of vegetables in it. The only thing he saw was Kyoko standing beside it. She looked at him and smiled. Tsuna could swear that her face lit like the Sun when she smiled.

She started walking to him and the world seemed to slow down as he held his breathing.

“Where were you? I was starting to get worried.” She said stopping in front of them.

“I-”

“I’m sorry sis; I was trying to find new customers.” The man cut Tsuna.

“It’s okay brother, but don’t leave suddenly again.”

Wait.

“Brother?” Tsuna said eyeing the man and Kyoko.

“Ah, hi Tsuna!” Kyoko finally noticed him.

“Tsuna, the hero?” The man asked.

“Yes, it’s him!”

Tsuna watched confused as they talked with each other. He didn’t know that Kyoko had a brother, but then he was never able to have a proper conversation with Kyoko so he really didn’t have any way to know.

“I am extremely lucky to have find you! A hero must eat healthy food to be strong! Sweets will make you weak and you won’t be able to save the world!”

“But I’m not going to save the world!”

“Here!” Ryohei took Tsuna by the shoulders and dragged him to the stand. “Carrots are good to your vision!”

“Also your skin.” Kyoko added.

“Beets are good for your muscles!”

“They improve your health in general.”

Reborn watched as he explained to Tsuna every vegetable that he had in his stand, and how he cultivated them. He felt a familiar aura around Ryohei. The aura of a dragon tamer.

Could this farmer be one of the descendants? It would be his luck if that were correct.

Tsuna finally freed himself from Ryohei’s grasp when he was about to start talking about the fruits that he had.

“Look, mister…”

“Ryohei!”

“Ryohei… I like vegetables, a lot,” That was not true. “But who buys or cooks them is my mom. She must be somewhere around here, when I see her I’ll tell her to come here.” Tsuna tried to excuse himself and leave. He was upset that he lost all his sweets. Maybe he could still buy some somewhere.

“That’s good! When you find her, you will be able to tell her everything that you learned about the vegetables! Just let me tell you about the grapes!”

“E-Eh! The-there’s no need to-”

“We cultivated these grapes with all our passion and care.” Kyoko said.

The moment that Tsuna hesitated was enough to get Ryohei to start his speech again, and Reborn took that as his chance. There was only one dragon tamer that was so strong that didn’t need a weapon to fight. Knuckle didn’t use a weapon, but his magic infused candies were enough to make his body one.

Taking the bag of candies from his pocket unnoticed, he took one of the small candies and aimed at Ryohei’s mouth. A normal person could not stand the magic infused into these candies and that would be very dangerous to do, but Reborn had to confirm his suspicions. He threw the sweet and watched it enter Ryohei’s mouth.

Tsuna noticed what Reborn had done the moment that Ryohei went silent.

“Ryohei?! Reborn, what did you do?!”

“Is this candy?” Ryohei asked munching the sweet.

“Maybe.” Reborn said.

“Eh?! I-I’m sorry Ryohei I don’t know what he was thinking of-”

“Hm, it doesn’t have much sugar like most sweets and it’s not that bad. Its consistency is nice and-” Suddenly Ryohei’s eyes went wide.

Tsuna watched in horror as his body started to glow and he was paralyzed. Reborn waited to see what would happen, usually when a normal human ate Knuckle’s candies, their body couldn’t bear the magic and they fell sick for weeks.

“Brother?” Kyoko asked with worry.

That’s it. Reborn did something and killed Kyoko’s brother. She would hate him for the rest of her life and Tsuna would have to flee the village because Reborn would find a way to incriminate him, he was sure of that.

Ryohei finally started breathing again, even if his body still glowed, and gave Tsuna a confused look.

“Ryohei…?”

“Extreme!” He shouted suddenly. “I will teach you all about the gifts of Mother Nature as if I was going to die!”

Tsuna didn’t have time to react as Ryohei grabbed him by the arm and started dragging him away again. However, this time he was not walking, he was running, so fast that Tsuna was practically flying behind him.

Tsuna screamed for help, but Reborn and Kyoko just stared as they turned a corner and disappeared.

“Wow, brother looked so excited to teach Tsuna about the vegetables… It’s been some time since I saw him so happy.” Kyoko said.

“That’s good.” Reborn replied. “Can you tell me more about these grapes?”

“Oh, of course…” Kyoko started explaining to Reborn how they cultivated the grapes and how they kept plagues away from them.  
Reborn heard her explanation with a small smile on his face.

He could still hear Tsuna’s faint screams in the distance.


	6. Chapter 6

This was the day where Tsuna, Yamamoto, Ryohei and Reborn would be finally leaving the village.

Tsuna spent the last week training with Reborn. Not really training, more like being forced into dangerous situations. Like the day when Reborn thought it would be amusing to enrage a boar and let it chase Tsuna on the forest.

He was just leaving on this journey to save the world because Reborn was forcing him to do it. He didn’t want to see everyone die, but he couldn’t do anything. He wouldn’t succeed. He knew it.

He tried to run away when Reborn announced that they would be finally leaving, and as a result, Reborn was now dragging him through the village by his clothes. Tsuna was desperate but couldn’t help but feel impressed at his strength.

“Reborn, let me go. This won’t work.” He whined.

“I didn’t waste a week of my life on nothing.” Reborn calmly replied.

“You did, I’m useless. I won’t save the world. We’ll just die.”

“You will. I don’t care.”

“Eh?! Why are you so certain that you won’t die?!”

Reborn stopped and turned to him with a smirk. “I won’t. Now stop complaining.”

Tsuna kept squirming, trying to free himself from Reborn. If he managed to do that, he could run. If there was one thing that Tsuna was good at, it was running.

Reborn didn’t let him go, no matter how hard Tsuna tried, and at some point, he started hearing voices.

The voices were getting closer and when he turned his head with great effort, he saw the entire village there, at the gates. Probably waiting for him.

His entire body went cold. He had gone through some humiliating situations, but being dragged in front of the entire village was new.

“Reborn, let me go. This is humiliating.” He whined.

“You brought it on yourself.”

Tsuna sweatdropped and closed his eyes. Trying to ignore the buzz of all the people that where around. Watching his humiliation. He just wished that he could be invisible.

At least, he thought, he wasn’t forced to carry that damned cheese wheel.

At some point Reborn finally released him. Tsuna didn’t want to open his eyes because he knew what he would see. He was surprised that no one was laughing at him.

“Tsuna!” He heard Takeshi’s voice calling him.

Tsuna opened his eyes and focused exclusively on his friend, trying to ignore the fact that everyone was now silent.

“Eh? Takeshi?”

“Yes! I’m going with you! You are really taking this ‘save the world’ thing seriously. You even asked Reborn to bring you here to save energy for the combats didn’t you?” Takeshi said then laughed.

Tsuna didn’t know from where Takeshi had taken that idea, and before he could ask, the entire village started shouting and cheering for their ‘hero’.

That made Tsuna somewhat proud but also very nervous. People were shouting his name and calling him hero. Even though they had done that on the commemoration right after he returned from the dragon’s lair, Tsuna couldn’t get used to that.

Suddenly everyone was silent again, as Timoteo slowly walked to his group.

“Ah, Reborn. I see you are already leaving.” Timoteo said.

“Yes. There is no point in training Tsuna anymore. He doesn’t learn.” Reborn replied.

“You didn’t train me! You tried to kill me!” Tsuna shouted. 

Reborn just smirked and Tsuna knew that he wasn’t caring for his opinion.

“Ah, Tsuna.” Timoteo said. “I’m sorry to put you through this, but I hope you understand that there isn’t any other who can do this.”

He was serious and Tsuna knew that his grandpa wouldn’t put him through this if he had other option.

“Ah… I-I understand grandpa. It’s just that I don’t think I can do this.”

“Haha! Don’t worry Tsuna! You have me!” Takeshi said putting his arm on Tsuna’s shoulders.

“And you also have Reborn to help you.” Timoteo said.

Reborn crossed his arms and gave a scary look to Tsuna. Tsuna started sweating cold.

“G-grandpa, I-I don’t think that he’ll help. I think he wants to kill me…”

Timoteo gave a disapproving look to Reborn. “Oh?”

Reborn avoided his gaze.

Everyone stood silent for a long moment.

“Tsuna!” Tsuna heard a feminine voice call from the crowd. 

He recognized it instantly and started to search for its owner. After half a minute Kyoko finally emerged from the crowd.  
“Tsuna! I heard you are leaving!” Kyoko said.

“Yes. He will save the world.” Reborn said before Tsuna could do anything.

He couldn’t even tell her that he was probably going to die, because once again, her eyes lit with hope and she smiled, making his brain shut down.

“Tsuna!” Another feminine voice called from the crowd.

A few moments after a girl with dark brown hair emerged and ran to them. Tsuna recognized her as one of the people that had been stalking him recently. The most persistent of them.

“Haru heard you are leaving! Haru will be praying for you the entire time! Haru will pray while she does her chores! Haru will pray reading! Haru will pray on her sleep! Haru is praying right now! You are Haru’s hero!”

She was talking so fast that Tsuna almost didn’t understand what she was saying.

“Oh? You will be praying too?” Kyoko asked.

“Yes! Haru will be praying all the time!”

“We could pray together!”

“Hahi?! Yes! Haru thinks that’s a good idea! That way the gods will listen to us!” Haru said and then they started talking fast with one another.

Tsuna didn’t understand a thing, but he had the impression that they somehow had just become friends.

“Eh… Grandpa… We really have to talk about this…”

“Extreme!” A shout cut Tsuna, and he immediately knew who shouted.

“Oh, no.”

“Hahaha! I thought he wasn’t coming!” Yamamoto said.

Shouts from the crowd followed, and then people were quickly opening the way to Ryohei, who was running in Tsuna’s direction faster than a normal human should run.

Tsuna braced himself and prepared for the impact, but Ryohei just stopped in front of him.

“Sawada! I’m late! I must apologize!” Ryohei said bowing until his forehead touched the ground.

“Ry-Ryohei it’s okay. That’s n-not necessary…”

“It’s necessary! A real man admits his mistakes!” Ryohei shouted getting up from the ground.

“Eh… Okay but…”

“Tsuna!” Another voice shouted from the crowd, and just when Tsuna was about to face palm he recognized it.

“Mom?”

Nana emerged from the crowd and ran to Tsuna, tackling him in a hug.

“Tsuna, I’ll miss you so much, but I’m so proud of you!” She said between tears.

She was holding Tsuna so tight that he was barely breathing.

“Mom, I need to breathe.” Tsuna said, but Nana didn’t let go.

She kept muttering how much she loved him, how proud she was and that she was going to cheer and pray for him every day. Tsuna felt his hair getting wet.

“Mom…”

Suddenly Nana pulled away from Tsuna and he could see how wet her face was from the tears.

“Tsuna, I know everyone used to call you dame, but I always believed in you. I always believed that you would do great things and you will save the world.”

Looking at his mom’s eyes, Tsuna couldn’t find the courage to say that he didn’t believe in himself.

“Now, mama won’t be there to look after you but don’t forget to eat your meals, take baths and to put your clothes right. If you put them the wrong way just call Yamamoto and I’m sure that he’ll help you!” She chirped wiping her tears.

Just when Tsuna felt that he wouldn’t get more embarrassed, his mom just told the entire village that he didn’t even know how to dress without help.

“Mom…”

“Tsu!” Nana cut him. “I’ll be waiting for you! When you return I’m going to cook you favorite foods and we’ll have a banquet!”  
Her eyes started to get teary again and she ran away, disappearing on the crowd.

“Mom!” He called for her worried.

“It’s hard for a mother to see her son leaving.” Timoteo said. “But Nana is stronger than she seems.”

Leaving, Tsuna thought and he looked to the faces of everyone. To the hope and pride inside their eyes when they looked at him.  
Leaving.

“I-If there isn’t any other way… Then…”

“Good, we’ve wasted enough time.” Reborn cut him.

Ryohei hugged Kyoko and Yamamoto bid his farewells to his father. Tsuna stood beside Timoteo and Reborn trying to avoid the eyes of the villagers.

Everyone whistled, shouted and waved as Tsuna’s group turned their backs and started to leave.

He still wanted to run away, but seeing the hope on everyone’s eyes, he finally understood.

He couldn’t run from this.


	7. Chapter 7

Three days on the road and Tsuna was almost dying of exhaustion.

“Why are we walking to the nearby village? We could’ve taken horses with us.” Tsuna finally said.

“We are walking because you are weak. Consider this an extension of your training.” Reborn said.

Reborn, Yamamoto and Ryohei didn’t seem worried about the fact that they were sleeping on sleeping bags. Out in the open. For the last three days. 

Tsuna couldn’t sleep, too worried about being attacked on his sleep by bandits or some wild animal. He was sure that if they were on horseback they would already be on the other village on one day.

“This is not that bad Tsuna.” Yamamoto said.

“Yes Tsuna! Exercising will be good! If we meet any dragon we’ll be warmed up for combat!” Ryohei shouted punching the air.  
They were only so excited because they managed to sleep.

Tsuna sighed and then he remembered something that he didn’t think of on the last days.

“Hey, Reborn.”

“Hm.”

“The… ‘Weapons’… Shouldn’t we be carrying them with us?” He didn’t want to remember about the damn cheese but he was worried about what would happen if they found a dragon.

Reborn stopped walking and gave him a thoughtful stare.

“Yes, you should.”

Tsuna had a bad feeling.

Reborn took a small sack from his pocket and extended to Tsuna.

Tsuna eyed it warily for some time then took it. He immediately fell on the ground with a yell. The pouch could fit on his hand easily but it was heavier than he was, probably.

“What the-!”

“So there is where you’ve been putting our things?” Ryohei asked. Tsuna tried to lift the pouch.

“Yes.” Reborn replied.

“Is what I asked you to bring there?” Yamamoto said. Tsuna was trying with all his strength to lift the pouch.

Reborn nodded.

“Will someone help me here?! It’s heavier than it looks!” Tsuna finally shouted.

Reborn took the pouch with ease and put on his pocket again. “You are so weak.”

“I never said I was strong! Besides, what is that?”

“A magical pouch.”

“A magical pouch?”

“Ah! I heard about those!” Takeshi said.

“I’ve one on the farm; you can put much more inside them than they should carry. They’re useful.” Ryohei said.

“Tch! That’s not how they work.” A voice said, coming from the side of the road.

A boy with white hair, glasses and a strange kind of robe walked out of the bushes.

“They’re magically enchanted to have their capacity expanded. The spell itself is complex and can’t be executed by any wizard. You can’t also enchant any kind of bag. It must have fabric of high quality and the sewing must be perfect, otherwise the spell will backfire. It’s very expensive depending on how much capacity you want.”

When he finished the explanation Tsuna, Ryohei and Yamamoto had already forgotten what he had said.

“So it’s a bag that carry things. Because of magic.” Yamamoto said.

The boy sent him a deathly glare.

“Fucking commoners… Don’t know why I bothered…” He muttered under his breath and started leaving.

“Hey!” Tsuna tried calling him but he didn’t turn back. “Ah!” He wanted to ask the boy if he lived around here. If the village was close.

All Tsuna wanted at this moment was a comfy bed and some decent food. Was that asking much?

“Yes. Now move or we won’t reach the village today.” Reborn said and he noticed that he said his thoughts aloud.

Tsuna sighed. He had already forgotten the explanation about magical bags but he couldn’t help but wonder.

How did Reborn carry that pouch so easily?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've received art for this fic and I'm 100% motivated to write fillers bye.


	8. Chapter 8

They had finally arrived on the village and found an inn were they could stay. Yamamoto and Ryohei went out together to see the village while Tsuna and Reborn stayed on the inn.

Tsuna never felt so happy in his life for seeing a bed. He threw himself on it immediately and closed his eyes. It wasn’t as comfortable as his bed but it still was heavenly.

Just when he was about to fall asleep Reborn pulled the covers and he rolled to the ground with a “thud”.

Tsuna yelled in confusion until he finally understood what was happening.

“What are you doing?!” He yelled at Reborn.

“We don’t have time to rest.” He said throwing the covers carelessly on him.

“If this is about fighting dragons don’t expect me to fight well if I’m tired!” Tsuna said hugging the covers and burying his face on them. He had to think fast if he wanted to be left alone by Reborn.

“It’s not about fighting dragons.” Reborn said.

Tsuna tried to resist his curiosity but ended up lifting his head to look at Reborn.

“How it’s not about fighting dragons? The only reason I left my home was because of fighting dragons!”

“It is and it isn’t. We can’t fight a dragon if we can’t reach it.”

“I don’t understand.”

***

Hayato sat in front of the entrance to the dragon’s lair again, reading his giant book of spells that he left on the ground.

“This spell might work…” He muttered under his breath.

Since he discovered the barrier on the entrance of the dragon’s lair and its nature, he was trying to find a way to break it.

“Or perhaps if I can fool it…”

He had tried many times before. As an alchemist and draconologist, it was his dream to finally meet a dragon. A real dragon.  
He had read all the books that he could, he used the money his family had to find the rarer tomes and he made his own book of notes about dragons, but he was frustrated.

He had spent much time following rumors of dragons and reading what others had written about them, but he never could see one with his own eyes.

A dragon lived near his village and he never saw it.

He sighed and got up from the ground, shaking the dust from his robe.

“This might work…”

He took the ingredients he needed from his magical pouch and laid them on the ground, then drew the magic runes exactly how they were depicted on the book.

This book of spells was not only giant; it was ancient and possibly dangerous. It belonged to a powerful wizard that was long dead. Some said that if one read it all they would be consumed by insanity.

Hayato read and reread the book and nothing ever happened to him. The rumors about the book’s curse could be untrue, but its reliability was not.

He finished drawing the runes and muttered a few enchantments that he knew by memory making them glow. This way he knew they were working.

“Okay, here we go." He said and mixed the necessary ingredients, putting them on the runes.

He stared at the book and read the enchantments, making the runes glow even brighter.

His eyes widened when the barrier started glowing crimson. That never happened before. Was it working?

He kept chanting the enchantment until he heard the barrier resonate. A loud sound that reminded him of bells ringing.

He took a step back and shielded his eyes from the light.

“It worked!” He shouted in excitement.

Just when he thought the barrier would drop, it exploded instead, throwing him several meters back.

Hayato hit a wall and was breathless. His vision went dark and he could only hear the barrier still resonating, the sound fading with each second that passed.

He blinked a few times and tried to even his breathing. When he thought it was safe for him to get up, he stood.

The world spun and he fell on the ground again.

“Shit!” He muttered. He couldn’t stand on the ground the entire day. He had to get up and see if the spell worked.

He forced himself to get up again and this time he didn’t fall, but the world was still spinning. He took his time to return to normal and gave a step forward. He didn’t lose his balance as he was expecting, so that was a good sign.

Taking slow steps, he reached his pouch and the spell book. They were intact. However, the place on the ground where the runes were was black. Burnt.

He sighed and walked to the barrier. He extended a hand with caution and when he touched the invisible barrier, a faint red light appeared beneath his palm. The only sign of the existence of that barrier.

He was frustrated but he had to admit.

Dragon magic was much superior to any other.

***

“You’re saying that we can’t enter its lair?” Tsuna said walking beside Reborn.

“Yes. It’s a long story but that lair in specific was sealed with a magical barrier that can’t be broken or fooled.”

They walked on the streets of the town, trying to find Yamamoto and Ryohei.

“So what we do now? Find a wizard?” Tsuna asked.

Reborn stopped and gave him a glare that made him freeze.

“Are you listening? That barrier can’t be broken or fooled. We have to find the key.”

“The… key?” If a key was all they needed they only had to find a locksmith no?

Reborn sighed. “You are stupider than I thought. The barrier and the key aren’t physical. A locksmith won’t work.”

“Hiee! Are you reading my thoughts?!”

“Yes.”

Tsuna stared at him for a few seconds. He didn’t seem to be joking.

“Hieeeeee?!”

“Stop yelling. We need to find the key.” Reborn said resuming his pace.

“But what is the key?” Tsuna asked following him.

“The right question is: Who?”

“Who?”

“Exactly.”

***

Yamamoto and Ryohei went on different ways after they left the inn. Yamamoto didn’t know where the other had gone but he had said something like “I’ll buy proper food for us” so he must have been somewhere on the village buying vegetables.

Yamamoto was trying to find the house of an old friend of his father, who was also a swordsman. His father had said to search for him when he arrived there, that he could give Yamamoto some tips to improve his technique in general.

However, he didn’t have any luck. When he asked to people on the streets they said the old swordsman died years ago, and hadn’t left any family or apprentices. It was sad to know that his stile died with him.

He was now trying to find the way back to the inn, without much luck. He could swear he had passed through an alley when he left the inn, but he walked through several alleys and didn’t see any place that he recognized.

“I am lost.” He admitted to the alley walls with a laugh.

“Good to know.” A voice came from behind him.

He turned his head and saw two men blocking one way out of the alley.

“We can always show you the way.” Other voice came from the other side and two men blocked the exit.

“If you have money of course.” One of them said.

Yamamoto was surrounded by bandits. If he only had his sword…

“You’re on my way.” A familiar voice spoke.

Yamamoto heard an explosion and screams followed. The two man that were blocking one of the sides of the alley were on the ground. Smoke was coming from their bodies.

The same boy with white hair from earlier looked at them with what seemed to be disgust.

“Get the fuck out of my alley.” He said.

“You brat-!” One of the bandits exclaimed but the other put a hand on his shoulder, and they quickly fled.

Yamamoto smiled.

“Thanks!” He said to the boy.

“I said get the fuck out of my alley.” The boy replied.

Yamamoto grin widened.

“Geez thanks anyway.” He said and then walked out of the alley.

He wanted to know who he was, but since he saved his life, he was going to obey.

***

Ryohei got himself into one arm wrestling contest. He didn’t know how it escalated to that but he didn’t care much to remember.  
He forced the arm of the last contestant on the table and when it came down, the cheers of the people around filled his ears.

They crowned him their champion and when they asked him how he was so strong he didn’t waste any time and started boasting about his farm and vegetables.

That reminded him that he still had to buy the vegetables to make lunch. He excused himself and left running.   
Leaving his trophy and disappointed spectators behind him.

***

Hayato entered the small building that he owned on the alley. It was his lab. There he stored reagents, runes or practiced complicated spells that weren’t safe.

Today’s failure left him highly unmotivated. That spell had been his best chance.

He put his bag on the table, threw himself on a chair, and moaned. His back and ribs still hurt from earlier.

He was tired but he had to see what went wrong, or what he could do. That wasn’t the only spell on the book that could be used against magical barriers.

With a heavy sigh, he pulled the spell book from his bag and opened it on the table. The light was dim, so he lit a lamp and put his glasses to read better.

He flipped the pages slowly, making a mental note of which spells he had tried already and trying to find any that he didn’t. Almost at the end of the book, he found one.

After quickly reading the list of reagents he needed he looked to the shelves on the walls. Searching on the countless labeled jars with ominous contents for a specific. He didn’t remember if he still had that reagent. It was common, and he used it on too many potions.

He got up from the chair when he finally spotted it. He took the jar from the shelf and as expected, it was empty.

He threw it on the wall with a frustrated groan.

“Fuck!” He yelled when the glass shards flew on his way.

He ran a hand through his hair and sighed, trying to calm himself. That herb was common and he knew where he could find more of it.

Shaking the shards from his robe, he took the bag from the table, and left leaving the spell book behind.

He wouldn’t need that now.

***

Tsuna and Reborn reached a small lake outside the village. They didn’t see Yamamoto or Ryohei on their search; also, they didn’t find any trace of the key that Reborn mentioned.

“Are you sure the key is really a person?” Tsuna asked. “I-I mean, of course you’re sure but… It’s kind of hard to believe…” He added when the man glared at him.

“The barrier is real and so is the key.” Reborn said.

Tsuna didn’t understand what that meant and Reborn noticed that. With a sigh, he explained that the barrier was both a work of human and dragon magic. However, to make sure that the dragon wasn’t isolated forever, the human made a key that would lower the barrier in case of emergency. 

The wizard that helped the dragon create the barrier was one of the first dragon tamers, and he made his own blood the key to the barrier.

“The key is blood?!” Tsuna asked alarmed. He was afraid that they would have to kill someone.

“We won’t have to kill anyone. For now.” Reborn replied. That didn’t reassure Tsuna.

“But-”

“Hey Tsuna!” A shout cut him. It was Yamamoto.

“Takeshi! Where were you?!”

Yamamoto approached them laughing. “Trying to find you.”

Yamamoto explained what happened and that he lost himself.

“Where is Ryohei?” Reborn asked.

“We went on different ways since we left the inn. But what are you guys doing here? I thought you were going to rest Tsuna?”  
Tsuna sent a glare to Reborn before explaining him what they were doing.

“Ah! But how do we know we found the right person?” Yamamoto asked confused.

Tsuna looked to Reborn.

“I’ll know.” Reborn said.

Tsuna sighed.

“We’ll have to search the entire village then?” Yamamoto asked.

“What if this person isn’t here?” Tsuna asked.

“Yes, and we will have to proceed to the next dragon. We don’t have time to waste.” Reborn answered.

“You’re stepping on it!” A voice cried. Tsuna remembers it vaguely. “You’re ruining them!”

The same boy from earlier ran to them. He didn’t look happy.

“What…”

“You stupid! You stepped over them! All! Over! Them!” The boy shouted at Yamamoto’s face.

“Over what?” Yamamoto asked surprised.

“The herbs! They’re common but not that common! And you ruined them!” The boy kept shouting and running his hand through his white hair nervously.

Yamamoto and Tsuna looked at Yamamoto’s feet and they saw some plants that had leafs slightly red, very different from the vegetation around.

“Ah! I’m sorry.” Yamamoto said taking a step to the side.

“Don’t be sorry! You ruined them!” The boy’s face was red. He was practically burning in anger.

“Maybe we can help you look for more?” Tsuna suggested. He was afraid something bad would happen.

The boy glared at him and he started sweat cold.

“You ruined. You ruined everything.” The boy hissed. He took a glass filled with a transparent liquid from his bag and opened it. A foul smoke started coming from inside.

“Oh, is that water?” Yamamoto asked with a smile.

Tsuna watched in horror as one bird that had been hit by the smoke fell from the sky.

“Takeshi that’s not water!” He cried.

Reborn felt that things would escalate, and as much as he wanted to see how they would react to a combat, he had to stop his students and “protégées” from getting murdered. At least while the other dragons were still silent.

“Chaos.” He said stepping between them and the boy.

The boy glared at him for a few seconds, then his face went pale.

“What… What did you just say?” He asked.

Reborn frowned in annoyance. “Chaos.” He repeated.

The boy’s mouth fell open and his eyes went wide. He stared Reborn from up to down, then looked behind him, at Tsuna and Yamamoto.

“This can’t… Be… Y-you… You are…” He started trembling.

“Ah! A-are you okay?” Tsuna asked poking his head from behind Reborn who just raised an eyebrow.

“You are! You are!” The boy said falling on his knees.

“Hey! Are you alright?” Yamamoto asked.

“You are the dragon tamers! And!”

“Reborn.” Reborn said. “Timoteo must have sent word about us.”

The fact was that nobody sent any word about them. Hayato bribed some messengers into telling him everything that happened to the nearby village since he heard that the dragon there was enraged. There could only be one reason for them to be there.

“Please let me go with you! I am an alchemist and draconologist! Please! Let me go with you see the dragon! The dragons! I study dragons for a long time! I have my own book! I can make healing poultices if you want!” He pleaded.

“He-hey… Calm down…” Tsuna said. “You didn’t even tell us your name…”

“No.” Reborn said.

“Eh?!”

“I won’t babysit a civilian.”

Tsuna looked at the boy, whose eyes started to fill with tears. He didn’t like to see people cry.

“Reborn… He said he knows dragons, and maybe the potions will be helpful.” He reasoned.

“No deal.”

The boy’s bottom lip trembled.

“Reborn!” Tsuna protested.

“I-It’s okay.” The boy said. His voice was broken.

Tsuna looked at him and couldn’t help but feel empathy. He knew how it was to tell people everything was okay when it was not.  
“You’re not babysitting anyone Reborn!” He shouted, feeling a courage that he didn’t know he had flare inside him. “We are grown up enough to take care of our own! He is! Yamamoto is! I am!”

Reborn stared at him with that unreadable look on his face, and suddenly Tsuna’s courage vanished. He didn’t regret challenging him though.

Reborn was intrigued. The moment that Tsuna challenged Reborn, he felt his dragon tamer aura flare with more power, but that was not what left him intrigued. What really left him curious was that another aura flared in response to his. And it wasn’t Yamamoto’s.

“Hm… Give me your hand.” Reborn said.

“W-what?” Tsuna asked.

“You.” Reborn said pointing to the boy.

He agreed quickly and Reborn took his hand by the wrist, turning his palm up. With one of his long nails, he made a small cut and drew a blood drop. He released the boy’s hand and put the blood on his tongue’s tip.

It was very faint on his blood, but it was definitely there. The heritage. The magic.

“Hm…”

However, it wouldn’t be enough to make the barrier lower. He had to make another test.

“What are you doing?” Tsuna asked when he saw Reborn taking the pouch with their weapons from inside his pocket.

“Testing something.”

Tsuna gave a worried look to the boy, who looked much honored to be tested, and to Reborn. He didn’t know what just happened but he had a bad feeling about this.

The magic on the boy’s blood wouldn’t be enough to make the barrier come down, but maybe other kind of magic would help. The pouch was enchanted so anyone who wasn’t a dragon tamer would have their hand burnt the moment they tried to take anything from inside it, and if you were a dragon tamer, you would only be able to take your corresponding weapon from inside it.

If this boy managed to take his weapon, a weapon that Reborn knew, he would bring him along. And if he didn’t…

Well…

“Try to take anything out of this bag. You can keep whatever you get.” Reborn said.

Tsuna’s bad feeling only grew when the boy nodded and reached for the pouch. Something bad would happen. Tsuna didn’t want to see this. He closed his eyes and waited for the worst.

“I-I can’t believe!” He heard the shout.

Not able to keep his eyes closed for much more he looked at the boy.

“Cool! You got a bag!” Yamamoto said.

Tsuna looked at the bag that the boy held with confusion. What was that?

“This… This is…!” The boy said.

“Hm… It worked.”

“What worked?!” Tsuna exclaimed.

“We have to find Ryohei.” Reborn said ignoring him. “You come with us.” He said pointing to the boy.

“Y-yes sir!” The boy said getting up from the ground and patting his knees, to clean his robe.

“Hiee?! A-anyway… What is your name?”

The boy stared at him for a while and then finally said “Hayato.”

“Nice to meet you Hayato! I’m Takeshi!” Yamamoto said hugging him by the shoulders. Hayato glared at him.

“A-and I’m Tsuna.”

Hayato looked at him and his gaze seemed to soften. 

“Nice to meet you.” He said. “Thank you.” He muttered and Tsuna almost didn’t hear it.

“Don’t mention it- Hiee! What are you doing?” He shouted when Reborn pushed him.

“Walk faster; we don’t have time to lose.”

Tsuna glared at him but the three started following Reborn.


	9. Chapter 9

They were almost running behind Reborn. Why was he so hasty?

“Reborn!” Tsuna called.

“Hm?”

“Why are we running? The dragon didn’t do anything here.”

Hayato told him that they didn’t usually hear from the dragon near the village. It stayed on his lair and they stayed on their town. They didn’t disturb each other, but if the dragon was enraged, it didn’t show any sign.

“We have five other dragons to check.” Reborn said.

“Ah, but if not even Hayato know what is happening to them… Maybe they’re okay?”

Looks like Hayato was so obsessed with dragons that he bribed messengers from distant villages to send him news about all the dragons.

Reborn suddenly stopped. “They’re silent.” He said.

“But… what if they’re just… Resting? The dragon on our village wasn’t exactly silent-” He made silence when Reborn glared at him.

“They’re never silent. Ever.” Reborn said and then continued walking.

Tsuna was confused. How could Reborn know of that when no one else seemed to know what was going on?

“Oi Tsuna!” He saw Ryohei shouting at him, holding a basket full of vegetables, just right before Reborn grabbed him by his arm and dragged him with them, making him drop the basket.

“What is going on?” Ryohei asked.

“Come with us.” Reborn said not bothering to look in his face.

Ryohei nodded and Reborn released him.

“Tsuna what is happening?” Ryohei asked seriously walking beside Tsuna.

“I don’t know. He’s been hasty like this the entire day.” Tsuna replied.

“Hey Ryohei! Look!” Yamamoto called and Ryohei looked at him. “This is Hayato and he’s coming with us!”

“Hey! What’s up?” Ryohei said to Hayato but he didn’t reply. Ryohei went to walk beside him and he and Yamamoto walked on both sides of the boy, talking with each other and with the boy who seemed to be nervous and angry at all the interaction.

“Where are we going anyway?” Tsuna asked to Reborn.

“The dragon’s lair.” Reborn replied.

“The dragon’s lair?!” Hayato shouted surprising Ryohei and Yamamoto who were previously chatting with him. “Now?! I didn’t even bring my spell book! My reagents my runes! Excuse me sir I’ll return with them-”

“There’s no need.” Reborn cut him.

“A-ah! Excuse me, sir.” Hayato said quickly returning to his stoic state.

“Reborn I am tired and we didn’t have lunch! How do you expect me to fight a dragon like this?” Tsuna complained.

Reborn sighed. Always complaining and crying. Couldn’t humans be less annoying?

“Stop complaining or I’ll let it eat you.” Reborn said.

Tsuna made silence at that instant. Ryohei and Yamamoto continued talking to Hayato, even if he wasn’t saying anything.  
In no time, they were in the tunnel that led to the entrance of the dragon’s lair. Of course it was a cave. Of course it had to be underground. Because dragons could fly but they were always obviously underground.

Reborn stopped walking abruptly but Tsuna wasn’t paying attention so he kept walking until he hit a wall with his face and fell on the ground.

“Owww… I didn’t see that…” He looked in front of him and saw nothing. “Wall…?”

He stared in confusion. There was nothing in front of him, what did he hit?

“You’ve hit the barrier.” Reborn said. “Take it down.”

“Eh?!” Tsuna looked and saw Hayato taking something from inside the pouch he got earlier. It looked like… an egg? Only that it was greenish. Eggs shouldn’t be green right?

“Oh, watch out this egg is rotten.” Ryohei said.

“It’s a weapon you lawn head.” Hayato said annoyed.

“It is. It’ll start smelling and- Hey!”

Hayato didn’t hear him; he threw the egg on the barrier. Tsuna covered his mouth and nose to protect himself from the foul smell that would follow. The egg hit the barrier and shattered, releasing a green cloud, but Tsuna didn’t feel any odor.

The barrier suddenly appeared in front of him, as a wall of crimson flames that slowly faded.

Reborn coughed a few times taking Tsuna’s eyes from the magic that was in front of him.

Hayato looked at Reborn worried.

“A-are you okay sir? I’m sorry for not warning.”

“Fine.” Reborn replied still coughing.

“It didn’t smell.” Yamamoto noted.

“Yes. Weird.” Ryohei said.

“It’s because only dragons can feel its smell you idiots! This is a dragon tamer weapon, the smoke stuns the dragons!” He snarled at them.

“Oh.” Yamamoto said. “Nice.”

“The barrier is down. Go ahead.” Reborn said taking a deep breath.

The others walked past Tsuna cheerfully; Hayato was extremely excited, while he sat nervously on the ground.

“The last to cross the barrier won’t have dinner tonight.”

Tsuna hurried and got up from the ground, taking care to walk beside his friends.

They proceeded through the cave and it seemed like they were walking for hours. The landscape didn’t change, and Tsuna only knew somehow that they were going down. Much lower than probably the first dragon’s lair.

Then suddenly plants started appearing on the walls. Just a few at first, then more and more plants were appearing. Tsuna could swear that at some point he saw a butterfly, but that couldn’t be true. Butterflies didn’t live on the underground… Right?

It shouldn’t also be so clear underground, but Tsuna could see everything as if they were above ground.

At some point, they finally reached the main cave. He heard the collective gasps of his companions.

Tsuna thought he was going to see something similar to the other lair, but he wasn’t prepared to what he saw. No one would be prepared to that.

The cave was big. Really big. A small lake was in its middle, surrounded by a great diversity of trees. Flowers of all the possible colors bloomed on them. 

All around the lake and the trees small light balls floated. They looked like fireflies. In the middle of the lake butterflies flied in endless circles.

The light that lit the cave was slightly orange, so it seemed like the end of an afternoon inside there. Tsuna looked up and he saw clouds. Were they still underground?

“Who is there?” A soft voice echoed through the walls.

Tsuna yelped and stepped back. Could that be the dragon?

It couldn’t be, in his mind a dragon voice should be louder and more… Intimidating? That was what he remembered.

It was, indeed the dragon. Tsuna saw crimson wings lift above the tree tops then lower again. Some birds startled and started fleeing as the dragon slowly walked through the trees and finally poked its head out of then.

“Oh, it’s you.” The dragon said. Its black eyes gave them a curious look.

“Fon.” Reborn said.

“Reborn.” The dragon replied. Tsuna eyed Reborn in surprise. How did the dragon know him? Why everyone seemed to know him?

“It’s a dragon! It’s the dragon!” Hayato whispered-shouted taking a small notebook from his bag and scribbling in it furiously.

“This one is different.” Yamamoto whispered to Ryohei.

“It looks strong!” Ryohei replied in a normal tone, unlike his usual shouting.

Fon flew over the lake and landed in front of them. The gust of wind threw Tsuna a few centimeters back. He could hear Hayato’s pen hit the ground. The boy stared at the dragon with wide eyes. Was he even breathing?

“It’s been a long time.” Fon said. He untied the small ribbon that was on one of his claws and held it for a few seconds. A light surrounded him and everyone but Reborn shielded their eyes.

When the light faded and Tsuna looked, he saw a human, slightly shorter than Reborn, tying his black braid with the red ribbon. He wore what seemed to be a red robe with golden embroidery.

“You’re still hoarding as many animals as you can?” Reborn asked with a chuckle.

“I see you’re still using makeup.” Fon replied with a smirk.

“It’s natural Fon. It’s already like this.” Reborn said clearly annoyed.

Fon hummed.

“Wait!” Tsuna yelled. “You’re a human?! How?!”

Fon stared at Tsuna and his companions. “These are…”

“Dragon tamers.” Reborn said.

“I see… That’s how you broke the barrier.” Fon replied. “That means you’re not here just for a visit.”

“We have much to discuss, but first, why have you gone silent?”

“I have gone silent?” Fon asked surprised.

“There weren’t any news from you sir. It’s been a long time.” Hayato said.

Fon looked at him and hummed.

“So, what happened?” Yamamoto asked.

Fon considered his question for a while and then finally answered, “A wyvern intruded my domain.”

Tsuna, Ryohei and Yamamoto stared in confusion while Reborn tensed and Hayato gasped “How?”

“A wyvern?” Tsuna asked.

“Are you sure?” Reborn asked.

“I’ve seen it a few times, but every time I get near it, it disappears.”

Reborn hummed. “We have much to talk about.” He said then turned to Tsuna “You and the other go search for the wyvern.”

“But how will we search for something that we don’t know?” Tsuna asked.

Reborn glared at him and he took another step back.

“I know what a wyvern is, I can explain to them on the way sir.” Hayato said.

“Do it.” Reborn replied.

“Last time I saw it, it was to that direction.” Fon said pointing to one part of the forest.

“Yes, sir!” Hayato said and started walking. Tsuna and the others followed him.

“Don’t get killed.” Were Reborn’s last words.

***

They were walking on the forest for a while now, it seemed like hours but time there, on the underground seemed subjective. A good thing was that at least the forest wasn’t dark. The countless fireflies around the trees were great lighting.

The place in its entirety was beautiful and seemed infinite.

Hayato explained to them, during that time why Fon suddenly became human and what wyverns were.

Seemed like dragons could take on human form by magic infused on a special item that they had to carry with them everywhere. Touching that item for a certain amount of time and summoning its magic would do the trick.

The wyverns were dragons’ archenemies. That was exactly what they were. There was a long story behind it all but, from what Tsuna gathered that was basically what wyverns were.

They were similar to dragons in appearance, except that they had wings in place of their front legs and they spat a corrosive poison instead of fire.

“Doesn’t it makes you nervous?” Tsuna said.

“What?” Hayato asked in confusion.

“The dragons aren’t the only monsters out there. I didn’t know that.”

“Dragons aren’t monsters.” Hayato replied. “They don’t attack humans. It’s against their nature. They are guardians.”

“Of what?” Yamamoto asked.

Hayato was about to reply when a roar interrupted them. Tsuna hid behind Yamamoto.

“W-w-what w-was t-this? T-tell me it was F-Fon.”

“Silence.” A voice said from behind them.

Tsuna jumped with a yelp and someone held him from behind, covering his mouth.

“Silence.” The voice said again near his ear and he finally recognized Reborn.

He tried to calm down and even his breathing. They looked around in silence, only their breathing could be heard. Reborn released Tsuna when he felt he was calmer.

“What was that?” Tsuna whispered.

“Probably the wyvern. Keep your eyes open.” Reborn replied.

Tsuna had a bad feeling about this again, and it was justified when, a few seconds after something jumped out of the woods. It seemed like a dragon but it fit the description Hayato gave them.

“A wyvern!” Tsuna shouted.

Quickly Yamamoto took something from Reborn, a sword, Tsuna noticed after a while, and Hayato took two flasks from inside his pouch.

They ran to attack the wyvern, along with Ryohei that used nothing but his bare fists.

“Go help them.” Reborn said kicking him and making him fall on the ground yelling.

However, the yell that he heard didn’t come from him.

“Stop! Are you crazy?!” An unknown voice shouted.

Everyone stopped their attack and stared. Who just shouted that?

“Why are you attacking me?!”

Suddenly realization dawned on them. The wyvern was talking.

“Kill it already.” Reborn said.

“Why kill me? What did I do?” The wyvern asked.

“You’re a wyvern.” Reborn replied.

“Oh? I am?” The wyvern said. “I’m not a wyvern. Look.”

Light surrounded the wyvern, and when it faded a boy with green hair and a big apple hat on his head appeared.

“See? I’m not a wyvern.”

They stared at him.

“What?” Tsuna finally asked. “Are you a wyvern that can turn human?”

“No, I’m a child and you tried to attack me. I’ll call the police.”

“An illusion…” Reborn said while the child yelled calling for help. He didn’t know how the child had been able to fool both him and Fon, but he did.

“Hey, it’s okay kid. We won’t harm you.” Yamamoto said with a warm smile.

The kid stared at him for a while, seeming to calm down.

“You look stupid. Grandma said not to trust stupid people.” The kid said and continued yelling.

“We scared him…” Tsuna said.

“Hey! Kid! I have something for you!” Ryohei shouted. He took a tomato from inside one of his pockets and handed over to the kid. “You like those right?”

The boy stared at it for a while and then threw on Ryohei’s face.

“Why did you do that?!” Tsuna asked.

“It’s a tomato. They’ve been made to be thrown.” The kid answered on an even tone then continued yelling.

“I swear if this kid don’t shut up...” Hayato hissed.

The boy stared at him for a while then said, “Sir, I don’t know if anyone told you but there’s an octopus on your head.” Then continued yelling.

Hayato looked ready to murder him when Reborn stepped between them.

“Stop yelling.” He said.

The boy looked at him in horror and hid behind Tsuna.

“A dragon! A dragon! Help me!”

“Calm down… He’s scary but he’s not a dragon.” Tsuna tried to calm him.

The boy stared at him.

“You look like a nice person, but also stupid. I feel conflicted.” He said.

Tsuna stared at him a bit annoyed but ignored it.

“What are you doing here?” Tsuna asked.

“My grandma was sleeping and I went out to play.”

“Where do you live?” Takeshi asked.

“Near the village.” The kid replied.

“How did you enter here?” Hayato shouted.

“Walking?”

Tsuna stood in front of him to keep Hayato from trying to murder him.

“He is not a wyvern.” Ryohei said. “What do we do now?”

“Maybe take him to his home?” Yamamoto suggested.

“Where your grandma lives?” Tsuna asked.

“In a house near the village. She was sleeping when I left, but she had been sleeping for a few days. It was starting to smell but I didn’t want to wake her up.”

Everyone but Reborn looked at him with pity.

“Kid…” Ryohei said on an unusual low tone.

“I think she’s dead. Anyways, what are you doing here?”

“We were searching for a wyvern, but you’re not a wyvern right? What do we do now?” Yamamoto asked.

“We take him to Fon. It’s his domain, he decides what happens.” Reborn replied.

“Why? Shouldn’t we take him to an orphanage?” Tsuna said.

“We have to talk with Fon first.” Reborn said. “Hurry up and bring him along.”

“Um…” Tsuna stared at the boy uncertain. “Would you mind coming with us?”

“It’s not like I have anything better to do than following a group of strangers around.” The boy replied.

They walked back to Fon, who was waiting for them sitting near the lake with a monkey on his lap.

“You’re back.” He greeted them, and then gave an intrigued look to the boy.

“Another dragon! Help me!” The boy shouted and hid behind Tsuna again.

“He’s not bad.” Tsuna tried to reassure the boy. That seemed to calm him down a bit.

“Who is he?” Fon asked.

They explained what happened.

“I see…” Fon said. He put the monkey on his shoulder and got up from the ground, walking to them.

The boy trembled behind Tsuna, when Fon towered over them.

“What is your name?” Fon asked.

“It’s Fran.” The boy said. He stopped trembling.

“Do you like here Fran?”

Fran released the back of Tsuna’s shirt and looked around. “It’s a pretty place.”

Fon smiled. “You can stay here if you want.”

Tsuna looked at him with wide eyes. He was planning to adopt Fran?

“That was my plan, but thanks sir.” Fran said staring at him.

They stood in silence for a moment then Fran said, “I’ve never seen a man wearing a ribbon.”

Fon laughed. “It’s a special ribbon.”

“Ah, nice. Do you have food?” Fran said.

That reminded Tsuna that he didn’t eat lunch and didn’t know what time was it. He was starving and exhausted.

“I have. I’ll give it to you shortly; I just need to speak with my friends here.”

“Ah, okay.”

“Thank you for the help Reborn.” Fon said turning to them. “I believe you want to go back to the village to rest now.”

“We have to keep traveling.” Reborn replied.

Fon hummed. “Keep me informed.”

Reborn nodded and urged them to leave.

One less problem to deal with, and Tsuna was happy that they didn’t have to fight.

***

Back on the village, they discovered that the owner of the inn where they were was also Hayato’s half-sister. They weren’t exactly on the best terms, but she seemed to love him.

“I am so proud of you Hayato. You’ll finally get to follow your dream.” She said between tears.

Hayato grumbled something.

“Because of this I’ve decided to dismiss the cook earlier. I myself cooked my little brother’s feast. You can eat all you want for free.”

Hayato gasped and the color left his face.

“That’s kind of you.” Tsuna said.

“Don’t mention it, today is a special day. Where is the man that was with you?”

Reborn gave an excuse and disappeared earlier, when they arrived on the village.

“He… Will come at some point.”

“Good.” She said with a smile and led them to the dining room.

The table was filled with all kinds of food.

“Dinner!” Ryohei and Yamamoto shouted at the same time, but Tsuna noticed that something was wrong with the food.  
“Eat all you want. I made this with all my love just for you.”

Tsuna finally realized what was wrong with the food, when a small bird landed near one plate and after a beak from it, fell dead.  
“Don’t eat this food!” Both Tsuna and Hayato yelled at the same time.


	10. Chapter 10

Surprisingly they survived Bianchi’s banquet. After all his experience with her, Hayato developed an anti-poison strong enough to make them survive that.

He explained that she used to be an alchemist with a knack for poisons, and inspired by her, he himself became an alchemist. However, she was never able to make a single potion that wasn’t poisonous, and after their parents died in an accident, she had to take over the family business.

The first time he ate her food, he discovered that her knack for poisons wasn’t only restricted to potions, but to everything she did.

“I’m glad we survived.” Tsuna said sighing.

“The food was tasty though.” Ryohei said.

“It is, when it doesn’t almost kills you.” Hayato replied annoyed.

“We survived, so that’s what matters, right?” Takeshi said smiling.

“I think so…” Tsuna said. “Where are we going Reborn?”

They were on the road again, but Tsuna wasn’t tired today. Reborn finally let him have a proper night of sleep and he felt refreshed.

“The next village.” Reborn replied.

Tsuna glared at him. He said that as if Tsuna was dumb.

“I know! I’m asking which dragon we will face this time.”

“Hm…”

Reborn didn’t seem like he was going to answer Tsuna’s question. Tsuna was about to ask again when he heard a gasp coming from behind him.

Hayato stopped walking and gazed at the road in front of them with unfocused eyes.

“T-the next village is…!”

“Are you okay buddy?” Yamamoto asked worried.

“The next… It’s! It’s!” Hayato was trembling. Tsuna, Yamamoto and Ryohei went quickly to his side, to assist him.

Reborn tipped his fedora down, throwing an ominous shadow on the upper half of his face.

***

Verde tried his best to make delicate moves. It was hard being delicate and precise when you had huge claws instead of fingers.  
His lair was a huge square room, a lab, filled with diverse machinery that the humans wouldn’t dream of creating not in this generation, nor on the next.

He held with great care on the tip of his claws what seemed to be a pair of small round glasses. One of the lens was cracked.

Verde evened his breathing, and once more, tried to trace each crack on the lens with the tip of his claw. He recited some enchantments, making a certain amount of magic flow around it. Just when the lens started repairing, and he thought he finally did it, they shattered again and the spell was interrupted.

Verde sighed and looked to one of the monitors in his lab. The one that showed information about a certain project. He frowned.

Of all the things that could happen now, and he fell asleep on top of his glasses.

“This is troublesome.”

***

Tsuna looked nervously at Reborn while they resumed their walk. Hayato told them that according to his map, the next lair should belong to the dragon called Verde.

“Everything! Everything that humanity ever invented was already invented by Verde. He’s a visionary, also a great magician.” Hayato said excited.

“But… Hayato… You said whoever ever entered his lair left the place consumed by insanity…” Tsuna asked worried. He knew Yamamoto and Ryohei didn’t understand much of this visionary thing, but he was worried about this insanity thing.

“It’s because they can’t understand his greatness!” Hayato said pulling a journal out of his bag. “According to what I’ve found about his lair, he must have technology that is centuries ahead of what we have! These rumors about insanity are generated by commoners that don’t understand scientists!”

Reborn snorted, bringing all the attention that was previously on Hayato to him.

“A scientist you say? Don’t get it wrong boy. Verde is a madman.” The air around them suddenly was colder.

“I-I’m sorry sir…” Hayato apologized and put his journal back on his bag. All his previous excitement vanished.

Reborn seemed very annoyed to have to go to Verde’s lair. Tsuna couldn’t comprehend how or why he knew so much about dragons, but he had a bad feeling about this.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm warning people in advance, there'll be a panic attack in this chapter. (I don't know if it'll be bad to read but I'm just warning you, it's short and it'll appear at the end of the chapter)

Ten long days on the road, and they finally started seeing the town that they were supposed to go.

It was different from the others he had seen so far. A tall grey wall surrounded it, making it impossible for him to see the buildings inside. It contrasted with the forest that grew by its sides.

Tsuna almost cried of joy when he saw the city far away though. He was exhausted; he wasn’t over his fear of being attacked in his sleep on the outdoors. Hayato seemed to agree with him. The boy could barely keep his eyes open while walking beside Tsuna.

“Civilization, finally!” Hayato whispered. Tears of joy filled his eyes.

“I can’t believe we finally made it.” Tsuna sighed. He needed sleep.

“Hm…” Reborn suddenly stopped walking.

“Reborn…?” Tsuna asked. Everyone stopped walking with him.

“Go ahead; I’ll catch up to you later.” Reborn said and then walked away from them, on the opposite direction of the city.

“What is he doing? The city is to the other side.” Tsuna said.

“He probably has something to do?” Takeshi replied.

“That’s right; he said he’ll catch up to us later so we shouldn’t worry.” Ryohei said.

“I guess you’re right…” Tsuna didn’t have any reason to feel so worried; after all, Reborn could take care of himself.  
Still he felt as if something was off.

I hope there’s nothing wrong. I really need to sleep.

However, getting near the entrance of the city his hopes of having any time to rest vanished. The main gate was deserted. Was it just his impression, or there should be guards there? Not just guards, some kind of… Movement. Of the citizens or even animals.

They looked at each other and shrugged, passing the gates and entering the city. It was just as deserted as the gates, except that walking through the stone streets amidst the symmetrical houses they could see personal objects among other things abandoned.

“What happened here…?” Hayato asked as he carefully eyed the scenery.

Tsuna didn’t know the answer, but he was sure he wouldn’t like it.

“I hope nothing bad…” He replied.

As they got near the city’s center, they started hearing signs of human presence. Murmurs and shouting in the distance. They all ran in its direction. Whoever was still there could be needing help.

They turned a corner and entered the town’s plaza. Tsuna gasped as they stopped, watching the scene and trying to understand what was happening there.

The place was chaotic.

People ran in all directions, shouting orders or calls of help. Parents trying to find their children, people trying to find their friends.

A man ran into Tsuna’s group and bumped into Tsuna. He would’ve fell if Yamamoto and Ryohei hadn’t held him.

“God what are you doing standing there?” The man snarled trying.

“Ah! I-I’m just…” Tsuna stuttered as he tried to recover his balance.

“If you’re lost from your parents go talk with the elder! Move!” The man said and then ran off.

“How rude…” Tsuna said as he watched the man ran away.

“He said something about speaking with the elder.” Ryohei said.

“Yes, but how can we know who is the elder amidst this chaos?” Hayato replied.

“There.” Takeshi pointed to an old man.

“How do you know that is the elder?!” Hayato yelled.

“He’s the eldest person that I’ve seen around here.” Yamamoto replied scratching his head with a sheepish smile.

“That’s not how it works you idiot!” Hayato shouted. Tsuna had to hold him back from jumping on Yamamoto’s throat.

“Oh! You’re right Takeshi!” Ryohei said.

“H-how do we even know that he is the elder?” Tsuna said putting more effort to hold Hayato back, because now the boy was trying to reach for his bag. Probably to get some dangerous potions and throw at Takeshi and Ryohei.

“We ask right? We won’t know if we stay here.” Takeshi said.

“I extremely agree with you Takeshi. Let’s go!” Ryohei said already walking on the man’s direction. Takeshi followed right behind him.

“Wait-! Hayato, could you please stop struggling? I-I know it’s kinda stupid, but they’re right… We won’t know what is happening here if we don’t ask.” Tsuna said.

Hayato seemed to calm down, so Tsuna released him.

“Tch. I don’t agree with them, but I think you’re right… C’mon, if we let them alone they might ruin something with their idiocy.”  
They ran after Takeshi and Ryohei, and saw that they stopped at some distance from the old man. He seemed to be speaking with someone else.

“This is unnecessary! This is stupid! Leaving our houses because of a mad dragon? You’re just as mad as it is!” A young man shouted.

The elder just patiently stared at him.

“He is our guardian, Salazar.” He replied. It seemed that they’ve been discussing for some time, and the old man’s patience was slowly fading away.

“He is attacking us! Instead of running and hiding, we should be defending ourselves! We should call the Varia!”

“That’s enough!” The old man said frowning. “That attitude won’t be tolerated, Salazar. Go with everyone else, or don’t go.”

Salazar seemed like he wanted to reply, but instead just spat on the ground and walked away. The elder’s eyes followed him.

“Such disrespect with the elders.” Takeshi said.

“Hey! Are you the Village elder?” Ryohei shouted.

The old man looked at them, analyzing each one before replying.

“I am, and I can see you’re not from around here. What brings you to our village in such turbulent times?”

Takeshi smiled to Hayato, who glared at him in response.

“Um… Can you tell us what is happening here, mister?” Tsuna asked.

The elder stared at them thoughtful for a while.

“I can, but first. Could you kindly introduce yourselves?”

“I’m Ryohei, mister!”

“I’m Tsuna.”

“Hayato.”

“I’m Takeshi, and we’re dragon tamers!”

The elder’s eyebrows rose at Takeshi’s words. “Dragon tamers? The fabled dragon tamers of the legends?”

“Yes!” Ryohei and Takeshi shouted at the same time, while Hayato replied quietly.

“You can prove that?” The elder asked after a moment of consideration.

Takeshi and Ryohei looked at each other, while Hayato sighed.

“We don’t have our weapons now…” Takeshi said.

“Then how do you expect me to believe you?” The elder replied. 

“We know it’s hard to believe, mister, but… We’re telling the truth. We want to help. Please, tell us what is happening, and maybe we can help.” Tsuna pleaded.

The elder rubbed his chin while he considered.

“I don’t think you’re lying… There wouldn’t be any point in telling this kind of lie right now, anyway. I’ll believe in you.”  
He called for a younger man that was nearby. “Take care of everything. I’ll be gone for a while.”

The man nodded.

“Follow me.” The elder said turning to Tsuna’s group again.

They nodded and followed him.

They walked out of the chaos and into silent and neat streets. It was noticeably the richest area of the city. Tsuna never saw houses that impressive. Most of them had multiple floors and gorgeous gardens full of marble statues.

They followed the elder impressed by this area of the city. The architecture and everything was well planned and executed. They never saw a more organized place.

The house of the elder was a bit smaller than the others were and seemed older too. It resembled a lot Timoteo’s home, with just some different details. The garden was one of them, and the marble fountain in front of the entrance was the other.

The elder stopped in front of the entrance door and pulled a bunch of keys from his clothes, after some time he found the right key and unlocked the door, signing them to enter.

The architecture inside wasn’t that different from Timoteo’s house. The wall lamps were slightly different and seemed unpractical, the stairs that led to the second floor were made of marble instead of wood and the books.

Bookshelves where on every wall that they could see, well, they couldn’t quite see the walls since they were hidden behind the bookshelves. Tsuna wondered if the bookshelves weren't the walls. Mounts of books were on every available surface, and even on the ground at some parts. Timoteo’s library would be envious of this collection.

The man led them to a living room, where he pushed a mountain of books from a couch and told them to sit, while he sat on a seat in front of it.

“I’m sure that you heard what Salazar was saying.”

“I…” Tsuna started.

“He is wrong.” The elder cut him. “The dragon is not attacking us, despite what the scouts are saying. They think they’re seeing the dragon. They think that the green flames are enough proof that it is attacking us. They’re all wrong. A dragon isn’t just a form and pure power. A dragon is a sentient being. What is attacking us may look like your dragon, but it isn’t.” 

“We believe in you, mister.” Tsuna said and the elder nodded in approval. This wasn’t something that Tsuna would consider before, but after meeting Fon, he had the impression that dragons weren’t that scary.

“Can you tell us how this happened? How the dragon enraged?” Hayato asked.

“Enraged? Ah… You must be talking about what happens when the dragon loses its mind. I never heard about our dragon losing his mind. He is a very reasonable guardian, gave us much more than what the other dragons ever gave to their protégées.”

“You don’t know when this started?” Ryohei asked.

“Can’t you remember of something weird happening?” Takeshi asked.

“When? Weird? I think… Three days ago, we lost contact with our guardian. He doesn’t speak with us all the time, so that wasn’t uncommon, but that was when the attacks from this fake dragon started.” The elder looked to the ceiling thoughtful.

“You believe it’s a fake dragon?” Hayato asked.

“Indeed. Our dragon would never do that to us. He cares and protects us almost like a father.”

“He seems to be a nice dragon.” Tsuna said. He was thinking that maybe this dragon was similar to Fon, who was so unlikely to his village’s dragon. Maybe the black dragon looked so scary because it was enraged. Maybe it wasn’t bad.

The elder nodded.

“We need to do something quickly then, if it’s not their dragon then what it is?” Takeshi asked.

“We have to extremely check this out!”

“We can’t go without our weapons, it can be another dragon.” Hayato said.

“I agree. It could be dangerous.” Tsuna replied. Where was Reborn, anyway?

“Thank you, young ones. I’ll be forever grateful if you can help us.”

“Ah! We’ll do our best, mister.” Tsuna said.

“I believe in you.” The elder said and gave them a genuine smile. “You have a wonderful job. Many people seem to believe these days that dragons are monsters.” He sighed. “People like Salazar, who thinks calling the Varia on a guardian dragon is the answer. They all forgot about the past. About how the dragons protected us from extinction.”

“Ex-Extinction?!” Tsuna asked surprised.

“What is an extraction?” Ryohei asked.

“It’s not extraction, you fool! It’s extinction!” Hayato snarled at Ryohei, and then turned back to the elder with glowing eyes. “I’ve read about it a few times, but I don’t have much data on the matter. Are you talking about the event known as ‘The War’?” 

The elder nodded. “It’s not surprising that even dragon tamers like you don’t know about it. It just happened about a millennium ago.”

“What was this war?” Takeshi asked.

“I have little information about the war, the only consistent thing I have is that it was also called ‘End of times’.” Hayato replied.

“That’s the truth. The war almost destroyed everything. It reaped the world’s face and almost caused absolute extinction of any and every being that existed. I heard most species didn’t survive it.”

“You have any information about it?!” Hayato asked already taking his journal, an inkwell and a feather from inside his bag.

“Unlike the other dragons, who preferred to hide the fact that this happened, our dragon want us to know the past, and to use it to build our future. I can tell you about it.”

“Please do!” Hayato replied without even blinking.

The elder smiled.

“I can’t say for sure when it started, time wasn’t the same back then, but I can tell for sure who started it. The wyverns, always them, those nasty little demons. They spread faster than an epidemic; they are a disease to this world. Well, they were. Since the war, it’s believed that they are extinct. That’s not surprising considering how far they pushed the dragons.

The wyverns started preying more and more into species inside dragon territory. It was awful. Dragons and wyverns were always in conflict, but they maintained a respectful distance from each other. Until the wyverns stopped respecting it.

There was a big incident involving a sacred forest and a group of wyverns that desecrated it with their poison. That was the beginning of the war.

The conflict escalated quickly and spread everywhere. Poison against flame. Chaos and blood. The dragon’s power was menacing, but the wyvern’s forces were massive. The strongest and eldest dragons among the combatants saw that this conflict would last longer than the others did, so they suggested hoarding as much of the weaker creatures that couldn’t fight as possible.

Many dragons lived back then, as numerous as the humans are now. Only the seven strongest agreed to the decision though. Their magic could seal the protected places, while they fought on the war.

They chose the locations that were less likely to be attacked. They still use them until this day. Their current lairs were once home to our ancestors.

The war raged for decades. Most of the world became ashes, but we’re still alive. All thanks to the dragons that cared for us, and protected us to the end.”

The elder finished his tale smiling while the group stared at him with their mouths open.

“Incredible! How did I never find anything about this before? How do you know so much?” Hayato asked with gleaming eyes.

“Our dragon expects us to be knowledgeable and to take care of ourselves. We, elders, are encouraged to pass the story to our successors and whoever wants to hear it.” A proud smile was on the old man’s lips.

“Wow, a war that lasted decades… I can’t even imagine it.” Takeshi said.

“Me too. How can they fight for so long? Did they have some kind of special training to raise their stamina?” Ryohei asked.

Tsuna sweatdropped and Hayato broke his feather. “Ry-Ryohei… I don’t think that’s what he meant…”

“It’s obvious that they didn’t fight for decades non-stop you idiot! Even dragons can’t do that!” Hayato shouted.

“Then what he meant octopus head?” Ryohei shouted back.

“What did you say?!”

“Hayato, Ryohei, calm down...” Tsuna tried calming them.

“Ma, ma, people. No need to fight, misunderstandings happen.” Takeshi said.

“So noisy.” A familiar voice came from the room’s door. Everyone turned to its direction.

“Reborn?! What are you doing here?! How did you enter the house?!” Tsuna asked.

“Elder.” Reborn said tipping his fedora and ignoring him.

“I see the dragon tamers aren’t traveling alone.” The elder replied. “It’s been a long time since your last visit.”

“True. You must know why I’m here.”

“Wait, you know each other?” Tsuna interrupted them.

“Yes.” Reborn replied.

“Why do you always know everyone?”

“I travel a lot.” Reborn replied with a smirk.

“I know why you’re here, but Verde is not the reason for this crisis.” The elder replied frowning.

“We need to make sure everything is in order with him.” Reborn turned to the old man with a serious expression. “You know we won’t hurt him.”

The elder nodded. “Indeed, but I was advised against letting you enter his lair.”

Reborn put a hand on his waist. “I’ll get in and out so fast that he’ll barely notice. Besides, it’s not as if he could keep me away forever.”

The elder and Reborn stared at each other for a long time, then the old man finally sighed.

“You’re right, but please refrain from disturbing our guardian.” He said and then got up from his seat. “Follow me.”

“Just… How much do you travel Reborn?” Tsuna asked as they followed the elder through a series of corridors.

Reborn shrugged.

That wasn’t much of an answer, but Tsuna wouldn’t press the matter.

The elder stopped in front of a plain metallic wall at the end of a corridor. A dead end. He touched it and a small square of green light appeared. Tsuna saw numbers and letters on it. The old man typed a sequence and the square shifted to a circle that emitted a light beam. He bowed slightly and put his eye in front of it. A few seconds later and the square disappeared, making the wall shift and part in two parts that slid to opposite sides, revealing a small metallic square room.

“What kind of magic is this?” Hayato asked.

“It’s the power of our guardian.” The elder replied. “Enter this room and wait. You will be taken to your destination.”

“But isn’t the lair underground? How this will take us there?” Takeshi asked.

“Maybe stairs will appear?” Tsuna said uncertain.

“Stop wasting time.” Reborn said and pushed them inside the room. Tsuna yelled as he hit the opposite wall with his face.

“Why did you do that?!” He asked rubbing his nose. It hurt but didn’t feel broken. When he turned to Reborn’s direction, he saw the walls behind him closing again. “Wait! What are we supposed to do?”

“Good luck, and please don’t disturb Verde.” The elder said waving to them.

“Wait!” Tsuna shouted as he tried to get to the wall. It closed right in front of him. No stairs appeared. “Ah! Did he just lock us?!”

“Stop whining and try to keep your balance.” Reborn said leaning on one of the walls.

“What?” Tsuna asked, just before the room suddenly trembled and Tsuna felt like it was falling. His stomach went cold.

The falling sensation made pure panic run through him. Were they falling? Where they locked? What was happening? Why were they there?

He knew his friends were saying something, but he couldn’t focus on it. The room was falling. He could feel the movement even though everything was still. His eyes ran through every corner of the room, trying to find an escape, an exit or something that reassured him that the air could enter the place. There was nothing.

He started trembling. He wanted to control his fear, to tell himself that he was going to be okay, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t breathe. His heart beat too fast. His legs trembled. The walls were closing in and he couldn’t see if his friends were still there. He was alone. Locked inside a square metallic room that was falling.

A hand touched his shoulder startling him from his nightmare.

“Breathe.” Reborn kneeled in front of him; golden eyes stared into wide brown ones. “We’re almost there.”

Tsuna drew a shaky breath, trying to do as Reborn told him but the air didn’t come. There was no sufficient air in there.

Reborn gently took Tsuna’s hands on his and rubbed smalls circles on their back with his thumbs.

“Try to breathe. We’re almost there.” 

Tsuna tried again, slowly. Focusing solely on his breathing and the beat of his heart. He closed his eyes and repeated to himself that he could breathe, he wasn’t locked and he wasn’t alone.

The fear started to go away, and the feeling that the room was moving stopped. The wall near Tsuna shifted and opened, like the one on the elder’s house, revealing a long and wide corridor.

“We’re here.” Reborn said releasing Tsuna’s hands and getting up from the ground, walking out of their room and into the corridor.

“Tsuna are you okay?” Takeshi asked.

“What happened?” Ryohei shouted.

“Are you feeling nauseous? I have a potion for this.” Hayato said searching inside his bag.

“N-no, don’t worry, I’m fine… I just lost myself for a moment.” Tsuna replied with a nervous smile. “I’ll be okay, don’t worry.”

His friends seemed nervous, but acquiesced, leaving the room after Reborn. Tsuna was the last one to leave. He looked behind him, almost expecting the walls to close again and the room disappear, but it stayed there.

“What do we do now?” Tsuna asked. He was still shaky but he wanted to get out of that place as fast as possible.

Reborn stared at the distance in the corridor. It seemed endless.

“Take your weapons.” Reborn said taking Takeshi’s sword from inside the magical bag and giving it to its owner. Not the salami, the real sword.

Hayato took a few flasks from inside his bag and Ryohei did nothing. His body was his weapon, and he could use the candies too.

“Ah! What do I do? I don’t have a weapon.” Tsuna said.

“You’ll be the bait.” Reborn replied with a smirk.

“What?!”

“Don’t worry Tsuna, we can handle this.” Takeshi said smiling.

At least if something happened, and Tsuna hoped that nothing happened, his friends would be able to take care of it. He felt helpless, but nodded and followed right behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> GUESS WHO'S BACK WITH MORE FANFICTION WITH DRAGONS AND FULL OF NONSENSE? Hint: It's not me.  
> I hope you, whoever you are, enjoy the new chapter. Thank you for reading, leaving kudos or bookmarks. I'm still waiting for comments, no pressure guys~


	12. Chapter 12

And so their journey on the seemingly endless, grey and illuminated by white rectangles on the ceiling corridor started.

Tsuna wasn’t the best combat specialist out there, but it was hard for him to imagine that they couldn’t perceive an approach from anything hostile, since there were only two ways from where the enemies would come. One was behind them, and unmoving, the small square room that took them there. The other, was the end of the corridor, in front of them.

Unless the enemies came from the walls, that is, but that would be…

A hissing sound startled Tsuna from his thoughts. The walls on the left and right in front of him started sliding open, like doors, to reveal what was inside.

Ridiculous. The word that could summarize their entire journey, from the beginning to this point.

Two metallic humanoid-like dolls walked out of the walls, one from each side. In place of their hands, one had swords, and the other, some kind of automatic firing crossbows.

Ryohei sent the head of the swords doll flying with a punch. His body had a faint glow; he probably used his candy.  
Takeshi and Hayato tag teamed on the crossbows doll. Hayato threw his potions making it paralyzed, and Takeshi cut its head with a precise slash.

Tsuna only noticed that he was clinging to Reborn’s clothes when the man shoved him aside.

“That was easy.” Takeshi said with a grin.

“Didn’t even break a sweat.” Hayato said.

“What were those, though?” Ryohei asked, the glow on his body disappearing.

“Guards.” Reborn replied side eyeing Tsuna. “Stay alert, from what I know…”

More hissing sound, this time louder and longer, filled the corridor. Tsuna looked ahead of them. Every wall that they could see was shifting and opening like doors.

“There’s more.” Reborn completed his thought.

Everyone’s mouths fell open. Tsuna started praying in his mind that they survived this.

***

Verde noticed with a bit of annoyance an alert pop up on the security monitor. Apparently, not only he had problems with his magical item, but now he also had intruders.

Verde sat on his back legs and considered for a while that it could be a bug. It happened more often than he would admit. He wasn’t the best programmer after all, although there was a possibility that he was the only in the world, and that kind of made him the best in the world.

With a sigh, he decided to disable the alert and go back to his work. He hadn’t slept in days, because of this problem, and didn’t have time to deal with bugs when his magical item was more important.

Besides, if anyone were dumb enough to intrude there, the robots would take care of them, and if not the robots, he himself would have to do that.

Although he hates physically entering combat.

***

The fight wasn’t going well for them, although the robots outnumbered them, they managed to take them down in little groups.  
Hayato told Ryohei to hold them in front of them with his body, as he threw his explosive and acidic potions from afar, and Takeshi took them down one by one. It was hard and bloody work, one that they couldn’t hope to leave uninjured.

As the masses of metallic dolls fell, without their heads, cut in two and blown to pieces, the injuries on them increased.   
Ryohei took the worst of it by far. With several cuts all over his body, including one of an arrow that grazed his shoulder, but luckily didn’t hit him, he was still on the front, getting as much attention as he could.

Takeshi was behind him in injuries, since he only attacked with precision, taking down one robot per slash, but he still took some damage. While Ryohei wasn’t using a shirt at the moment, making it easier to spot the cuts on him, Yamamoto’s shirt was bloody and ragged. No repairs could make it go back to its previous state.

Hayato took less damage, but still, he hadn’t been that lucky. A robot managed to break their formation and leap behind Takeshi and Ryohei. They couldn’t really turn back to help Hayato, and just when Tsuna was about to dash from behind Reborn to try to help Hayato, despite his fear, he saw a fire ball flying from Hayato’s hand. In his other hand, that once had potions, he held a tiny book with some runes and words scribbled.

Tsuna looked at him with wide eyes, and he looked back. Hayato seemed as surprised with his magic as Tsuna was.

They didn’t have much time to think about it, so Hayato put his book back on his bag and continued throwing his potions. His robe was a bit charred on the sleeves, in places where the backfire of his magic hit and in places where the dangerous contents of his potions spilled, when he threw them.

The battle went on, until only four robots were left, then three, two, one, and finally, none.

The combatants sighed and looked at their battlefield. Ryohei and Takeshi laughed and high fived, while Hayato just sighed and started inspecting his physical state and counting the number of potions left on his bag.

“I can’t believe we did it!” Takeshi said.

“It was extreme!” Ryohei yelled, despite his injuries that seemed painful.

“We need time to heal, and I need time to replenish my stock.” Hayato said, still going through the contents of his bag.

“Oh, right, Hayato?” Takeshi said.

“Hm?”

“You used some cool magic back then! Can’t you use it again?”

Hayato looked up and his gaze drifted past Takeshi.

“I’m not used to battle magic.” He lifted his arm and showed his hand. The tip of his fingers, a bit of his palm and the tip of his sleeve showed burns. “I used on the moment, but the backfire is not worth it.”

“Oh, you should use some healing balms on that, it must be hurting!” Ryohei said.

“Look who’s talking, have you even seen yourself?” Hayato replied.

“What are you-” The glow on Ryohei’s body disappeared once again, and he started yelling in pain.

“Ryohei!” Takeshi yelled and ran to Ryohei’s side, who yelled back one ‘I’m fine!’

“Stupid.” Hayato muttered, already searching for healing potions and bandages inside his magic bag.

At least they survived, Tsuna thought as he sighed. They were finally…

“Not safe yet.” Reborn said. “Get ready, there’s more.”

Ryohei used his candy once more, despite already being on his limit, while Takeshi took a battle position and Hayato took his potions once again.

The wall in the end of the corridor shifted. The entrance it opened was by far bigger than the others from the robots were. Tsuna had a bad feeling about this.

A synthetic roar echoed through the air, and a silver dragon walked out of it. Its eyes glowed green.

“Time to stop being useless.” Reborn said and practically threw the cheese shield on Tsuna’s face. If he hadn’t been fast, he wouldn’t have evaded it.

“What about the other weapons?!” Tsuna asked taking it. If this was the dragon, they would need the other weapons to deal with it.

“It’s not a real dragon, but it has dragon flames. Don’t stand there with a stupid face and help them.” Reborn replied and casually leaned on a wall.

How could he be so casual about this all? Without time to search for an answer, Tsuna took the front line and raised his shield, deflecting the fire that came on their direction.

***

Verde casually raised his head from his latest unsuccessful repair attempts and looked once again at the security monitor. He should have installed cameras when he thought about them. The alert popped up once again, and this time the deepest security measures had been activated.

He should have installed those cameras, as he was dying to know who could have gone this far on reaching his lair. He had already acknowledged that the first alert hadn’t been a bug; otherwise, this alert wouldn’t have appeared.

He only hoped that this intrusion was actually worth his time.

***

Ryohei held the dragon’s head on the ground with both arms and the weight of his body. Hayato had thrown his last potions and had taken his little spell book once again. He didn’t use any spell, but Tsuna could see by the corner of his eye that he was waiting for a sign that he should attack.

The silver dragon roared in its synthetized and unnatural voice, while it tried to free itself from Ryohei’s grasp and breathed fire in any direction that it could. Fire that Tsuna skillfully blocked and deflected.

Takeshi dashed and took his chance, aiming for the dragon’s metallic throat. A single slash.

Time seemed to slow and freeze, as the dragon stopped, and its head disconnected from the body.

Ryohei released it, and it fell with a loud crash. They looked at each other, exhausted, bloody and battered, but exultant.  
Finally, the battle was over.

Ryohei fell on his knees, and so did Takeshi, supported by his sword.

“Ryohei! Takeshi!” Tsuna shouted.

“Blood loss. They took by far the worst of this battle.” Hayato said between gasps, searching on his bag for healing potions. “This is bad; I don’t have what they need right in hand.”

Tsuna froze, as he looked at his friends, impotent. His heart beat fast and fear took over, making his blood go cold.

“I thought you would be faster than this.” Reborn said. “Whatever.”

Tsuna looked at him. Golden energy flowed around Reborn. He moved his hands and it poured on them. It felt warm and comforting.

Tsuna closed his eyes involuntarily and felt sleepy. Few moments after, the feeling vanished, and Tsuna opened his eyes.  
His friends were up and no bruises or blood could be seen on them.

“Wow, I feel extremely refreshed!”

“Ah, this feels good! Who’s ready for another?” Takeshi laughed.

Hayato just kept staring at Reborn in silence with his mouth opened.

“You… You’re a healer?!” Tsuna yelled.

“I didn’t came here just to babysit you.” Reborn replied.

“No, b-but you… You used magic!”

Reborn shrugged. “We’ve wasted enough time here. The lair is close.”

Tsuna had many questions, but he knew that Reborn wouldn’t answer them. What was the point anyway? He nodded. At least he and his friends were well because of Reborn’s magic. He had to be grateful for that.

Reborn took the lead and walked to the door on the wall, from where the silvery dragon came. It was dark inside, but Tsuna could see a light from afar.

They walked for a minute, and reached the light without any more incidents, reaching a square room, as huge as Fon’s lair, except this one was grey and had devices and flashing lights that Tsuna had never seen, and didn’t have any plants or clouds.

“And who, by any chance, enters my lair?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't remember when I last updated this, but I'm finally back, lazyness just hit me hard but here I am yay.  
> Anyways, thanks for reading, as always, and any comments are welcome~  
> Have fun people!


	13. Chapter 13

“You’re still using pitiful dolls as guards, I see.” Reborn said.

 

“You’re still using makeup, I see.” A voice replied.

Tsuna and his friends looked at its direction, and saw the huge green dragon, with black eyes, staring at them.

“It’s natural, you know that.” Reborn said pinching his nose with annoyance.

“Do I?” The dragon replied.

For a few tense seconds both Reborn and the dragon stared at each other.

“Reborn.”

“Verde.”

“What is the meaning of this intrusion?” Verde finally said, releasing a heavy sigh, and the tense atmosphere dissolved.

“Why did you go silent?” Reborn asked.

“I don’t understand what you mean.” Verde replied.

“Are you okay?” Tsuna asked.

Verde stared at him for a few long seconds. “Huh… What a strange question. I run several tests and do regular checkups on my personal health. The latest tests say that I am, in fact healthy. So, to answer your question, I am ‘okay’.” He turned to Reborn. “I need clarification on what is currently happening, and why would you think that I have gone silent.”

“Hm… I can do that, once you tell me why is your village being attacked, and you’re not doing anything about that.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve given them more than necessary to defend themselves.” Verde said defensive.

“Mathematical formulas and blueprints that they don’t even have enough technology to piece together.” Reborn replied snorting.

“That’s more than necessary.”

“Then, explain why they are being attacked by a doll that looks a lot like a dragon, and conveniently has your fire on it.”

Verde stayed silent.

“I would expect that you at least would clean your own mess.”

“Still, they have what they need to defend themselves from that, and I have more important issues to address.” Verde said and turned his back to them.

“Define more important issues.”

“That… Is none of your business Reborn.”

Reborn snorted. “Oh for- Don’t tell me you slept on your glasses again.”

Verde tensed for a second. “Why… W-why would you say that?”

“You did that before.”

“S-still. I don’t see why that would be any of your problem.” Verde replied.

“You know you can’t repair it on your own. You should at least have addressed the problem with your dragon doll then contacted any of the others.”

“I can’t.” Verde admitted turning to face them once again. “The prototype destroyed the only access that I can use in this form. Trying to use any of the others, like for example, the one you used to get here, the elevator, would result in me destroying years of work. It would take me a long time to repair the damage.”

“So you won’t go get rid of your machine that went wild, just because you’re too lazy to repair the damages that you may cause.”

“Precisely.”

Reborn and Verde stared at each other for a while. Tsuna could feel the air around get colder with each passing second.

“You…” Reborn started saying.

“So! You’re not enraged?” Takeshi cut him and received a glare from Reborn. He raised his hands defensively and grinned.

“I don’t understand why I would be.” Verde replied and gave an inquisitive look to Reborn.

“Is there any way of tracking your toy, and any other exit from here that does not have an elevator?” Reborn asked.

“Yes and yes. Why?”

“Tsuna, once he gives you the location you go with the others and put down the fake dragon.”

“Why would I believe that a bunch of kids could take down my latest project?”

“They’re dragon tamers.”

Verde’s black eyes glowed with an ominous green light, as he looked more closely to each one of Tsuna’s friends, and paused to look better at Tsuna. He felt nervous under the dragon’s stare.

“I see…”

“It’s a deal then.” Reborn said.

“Don’t expect anything in return for this.” Verde replied.

Reborn hummed.

Verde walked to one table, and took with some effort a paper map from it. He then, went to one of the monitors, looked at it for a moment and returned to Tsuna’s group, giving the map to Hayato.

“This is where the prototype is now.” He pointed at one location of the map with one of his claws. “Mark it down.”

Hayato hurriedly took a piece of coal from inside his bag and circled the place. Verde nodded.

“I’ll open one of the exits for you. It will leave you on this place.” He pointed at another part of the map, not too far from where the prototype was. Hayato circled it.

He then, walked back to his monitors, his tail almost knocked Tsuna’s group down, and they had to duck to avoid being hit by it. Verde then pressed a few buttons and one of the walls slid to the side revealing another passage.

“Go through it, the path is simple enough to follow.” Verde said.

“Don’t take too long, Tsuna. We still have the other dragons to check.” Reborn said.

“Wait, you’re not coming?” Tsuna asked.

“Someone has to repair his glasses, since he won’t be able to do so on his own.” Reborn replied. Verde narrowed his eyes.

“I can take care of myself, thank you.” Verde said.

“And I need to talk to him too.” Reborn continued as if he didn’t hear the huge green dragon speaking with him.

“But… What is this prototype? I don’t understand.” Tsuna said.

“The same thing you just fought. Maybe bigger. Maybe stronger.” Reborn replied.

“What?! What if we need healing?!”

“I will be there, now stop wasting time and go.”

Under Reborn’s menacing glare, Tsuna couldn’t do anything but acquiesce and lead his group.

Once Tsuna and his group left, Verde looked at Reborn, intrigued.

“Will you tell me what is happening now?”

***

The path to the outside seemed very much like the one to Fon’s lair, after some time walking. The grey walls turned into cave walls suddenly, making it much easier for Tsuna to breathe. He didn’t know why, but the grey walls made everything seem like he couldn’t breathe.

It didn’t take long for them to reach the outside, in the middle of a forest.

Tsuna half expected the cave from where they just left to disappear somehow, but when he looked again at it, it was still there. With a sigh of relief he was about to ask “What do we do now?” when a synthetic roar shook his bones.

He was about to scream, but put a hand on his own mouth and looked around with wide eyes. Takeshi signed them to follow, and they hid behind a bush.

“This is not good; Reborn said this one would be bigger and stronger than the last.” Takeshi started.

“We can do it! I feel full of energy right now! With Tsuna’s shield, my candy, Takeshi’s sword and Hayato’s potions we can extremely win!” Ryohei said.

“Don’t shout you bastard!” Hayato glared at him. “It can hear us! Besides, I’m out of combat flasks. I can’t do anything without replenishing my stock.”

“And you can’t use magic, right?” Tsuna asked.

Hayato nodded. “The most I can do right now are barriers. I… Never… Practiced combat magic…” He admitted shamefully.

“But you know the theory.” Takeshi replied.

Hayato huffed. “That’s not enough. What was I expecting from a moron anyway?” He muttered.

Takeshi frowned a bit for a second, and then his cheerful expression was back again. “Well, I read a book about it once.”

“Really?” Tsuna asked.

“Yeah, but I didn’t know how to read back then because I was too young, so I just flipped through the images. They were very cool.” He replied.

“Uh… Takeshi…”

“You fucking bastard!” Hayato cut Tsuna with a shout. “I’m gonna…!”

Before he could finish what he was saying, the synthetic roar echoed again, this time nearer.

“What are we going to do?” Tsuna whispered in terror.

“We have to fight.” Takeshi said.

“Yeah, I’ll go first.” Ryohei said.

“Aren’t you on your limit, Ryohei?” Tsuna asked. Reborn explained to them, when they were walking to their first dragon, the limitations of their weapons. Apparently, Ryohei couldn’t use his candy too much; otherwise, it would cause damage to his own body.

“I feel extremely fine Tsuna, don’t worry.” Ryohei replied. Tsuna felt as if he wasn’t being completely honest, but he nodded.

“So, what’s the plan?” Tsuna asked.

“The same as always.” Takeshi replied with a grin. “You block the fire, Ryohei call its attention and I swish, swish, and stab it.”

“What the fuck?” Hayato said.

“Ah, Hayato, you can do your barriers?” Takeshi asked.

“Yes, but they won’t be effective against dragon fire. If it throws anything solid against us though, they will work.”

“Oh, that’ll be useful.” Takeshi said. “Now we just need to find the dragon.”

Just when Takeshi said that, the roar echoed above them. Ryohei thought fast, used his candy, then grabbed Tsuna and Hayato and ran to a side, while Takeshi darted to the other.

When he put both boys on the ground, and Tsuna could look at what happened, he saw a huge obsidian paw on the ground. Crushing the bush where they were hidden just a few seconds ago.

“You okay?” Ryohei asked.

Both boys looked at themselves then nodded.

“What about Takeshi?!” Tsuna shouted.

“I’m right here!” Takeshi shouted back.

The obsidian dragon with green sparkling eyes roared and tried clawing Takeshi, who evaded it jumping back.

“No time left for strategies. You two stay safe!” Ryohei shouted and ran to help Takeshi. Tsuna thought it was strange for him to tell them to stay safe, instead of fighting.

“Ah, Hayato…”

“I’ll do the barriers, you use the cheese. I think we can work something out.” He seemed calm, despite the huge obsidian beast that was ready to kill them.

Tsuna nodded and ran to help the other two.

***

“You’ve been enraged. I’m shocked.”

“It was not a coincidence.” Reborn replied annoyed.

They were both sitting at a table, in their human form, each one holding a mug of coffee.

“No, it wasn’t. Anyone with a minimum level of intelligence would see that your nature makes you prone to being enraged by whatever reasons.”

Reborn bowed his head and stared directly into his coffee, an action that made Verde frown. Even if it was shameful for a guardian dragon to be enraged, Reborn should have come up with a witty retort or with any reply at all.

“So you’re telling me… That someone is actively seeking to attack us?”

“Can you hear anyone other than me right now?”

Verde kept silent, trying to reach communication with any of the others without success.

“No.”

“That proves my point.”

“Actually, no.” Verde said pushing his glasses up. “The silence could be caused by a series of reasons.”

“Yet, none of these reasons would cause _her_ to go silent.” Reborn replied with a meaningful look.

It was Verde’s turn to bow his head and stare into his coffee. The dark reflection of his face stared back at him. The dark bags under his eyes evident. He was so tired.

“That’s true.”

Silence dominated the room, as each one of them focused on their own thoughts.

A beeping sound echoed on the room, bringing them back to the present.

“What is this?” Reborn asked getting up from his chair at once.

“An alarm.” Verde replied and chuckled, getting up from his chair.

“That’s pretty obvious.” Reborn said glaring at him, but following him to the door of the room anyway.

“We’ll see.” Verde said pressing a palm on the biometric sensor on the wall, opening the door that led to the main lab.

Once out of the room and inside the main lab, he ran to the monitors. Reborn was right behind him.

“Would you look at this.” Verde said impressed while he checked a screen with a huge red alert on it.

“What does it say?” Reborn asked standing beside Verde, who in answer signed him to read.

On the screen, the following could be read in huge capital letters.

**PROTOTYPE V-D01**

**CRITICAL DAMAGE ALERT**

“Seems like these dragon tamers aren’t that pitiful, after all.”

***

They managed to rip one leg off the mechanical dragon, and its balance was seriously affected, but not without sacrifice.  
Takeshi had been hit by the dragon’s tail and sent flying to hit a distant tree. His sword fell on the ground where he once stood, beside the metallic obsidian leg that twitched like a lizard’s tail.

Tsuna was doing his best to keep blocking, but the dragon’s patience with him waned, and instead of trying to pull away and get a good angle to breathe fire on them, it lunged forward and captured the cheese shield between its powerful jaws. Tsuna, who couldn’t free himself from the strap of the cheese shield, now dangled on the air screaming.

Hayato gritted his teeth. The situation was dire.

He stood a few meters away from the fighting, near a fallen tree that the dragon tried to throw at him and Tsuna at the beginning of the combat, but that he deflected with a powerful barrier. However, at this point, a barrier wouldn’t be needed. 

What they really needed was a powerful offensive.

Without Takeshi, their offensive power was severely lacking, since he couldn’t cast any offensive spell without hurting himself. He cursed his own stupidity. Why did he think that practicing offensive spells wasn’t necessary?

Hayato closed his eyes.

_Think. You have to think!_

He opened them again and his stare fell directly on the sword that Takeshi left behind.

Time seemed to move slow as his brain came up with an idea, one that he didn’t like but was the only option that he had at the moment.

“Turf-top!” He yelled while running to the sword that Takeshi left behind. His robes made it difficult so he got rid of them in the way. Although it left him without magical protection and only his light pants and shirt, mobility was what he needed right now.

Ryohei, who was trying to find a way to free Tsuna, looked confused at him.

“Pull it down!” Hayato yelled as he caught the sword that was heavier than it looked. Pushing away his worry and ignoring his weaknesses, he dashed below the dragon’s head, who was too busy trying to crush the cheese shield and possibly Tsuna.

Ryohei finally got the idea, and when Hayato rose the blade of the sword vertically below the dragon’s head, he jumped on top of it and tried to bring it down with all his strength and weight.

It took some effort but they managed to bring it down and pierce the dragon skull with the sword. The dragon struggled for a bit more, roaring and squirming. Green sparks fell from the cut and burnt Hayato’s hand, but he did not let go until the beast had stopped moving.

Hayato tried to pull away the sword, but it was stuck. He put more strength on it but the blade did not even budge, making him panic slightly. That was when two arms came from behind him; two hands wrapped around his own and pulled the sword away.

Hayato released the weapon and looked at Takeshi, who kneeled supporting himself on the sword and gave him a weak bloody smile.

“Well, it looks like everything went well.” He said. Hayato stared with wide eyes and his mouth opened.

“Takeshi!” Tsuna yelled running to his friend’s side.

“I’m okay, Tsuna. Hayato literally saved the day.” He said with a weak laugh and then turned to the silver-haired boy. “Thank you.”

Hayato clicked his tongue, muttered a “whatever” and walked to where he dropped his robes. His pouches where there too, and he knew that Takeshi would need healing.

Ryohei stayed behind to check on Tsuna and Takeshi’s situation. Tsuna was well, only a bit shaken. Now Takeshi…

“Ah… I don’t know. I think I broke something, maybe some ribs. It hurts a bit to breathe…” He said honestly to Ryohei.

“We need to get Reborn for healing then.” Ryohei said frowning in worry.

“That will not happen.” Reborn’s voice called from the distance. They turned their heads to see Reborn coming out of the woods, from the direction of the cave from where they came too. “I already used too much healing magic on him today. It will be dangerous to do so again. Hayato’s potions and rest should take care of the situation.”

“But…”

“Hey, Tsuna. No need to be so worried. It’s Reborn; he knows what he’s doing.” Takeshi tried to cheer up his friend. Tsuna nodded, as he knew that it was the more prudent decision here.

“We need to keep moving. Verde already acknowledge your support in this matter. He wants to speak with you.” Reborn said.

“Ryohei, could you give some support to Takeshi?” Tsuna asked.

Ryohei nodded and went to Takeshi’s side, slipping one of his arms across his shoulders and letting him lean his weight on him.

“Be careful with him, I still need to know the extent of his injuries.” Hayato said walking to them again. He was straightening his robes and checking his pouches.

Ryohei nodded, and they started their slow return to Verde’s lair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyyyyy It's finaly here! YOU THOUGHT I HAD DROPPED THIS FIC? I hadn't. Srsly I want to see the end of this, I'm just v slow with updates bc of the damn depression and everything else. I'l try to be faster tho. Thanks for reading/kudos/bookmarks as always.  
> Also, I'd like to say that I owe this chapter's quality to Sawadork. Without his help this shit would be shittier eh. Ty Sawadad~


	14. Chapter 14

Tsuna opened his eyes to find himself sitting in the middle of a clearing surrounded by trees, with his legs crossed. He blinked twice, confused as to what had happened. The last thing he remembers was that he was on Verde’s lair. There was no smooth transition. He was just there, and now he’s here.

He looked around him, to the grass that lazily waved with the warm breeze that blew around. He could hear the giggles of children playing in the distance. The sunlight that came from above filtered by the drifting clouds was… Nice.

The entire place and situation were soothing.

He didn’t feel like getting up from the ground, even if he didn’t know what he was doing there. Or how he got there. His intuition told him that this place was familiar and safe, though, so he decided to stay there for a bit more.

Closing his eyes, Tsuna took a deep breathe of the fresh air. It tasted so fresh and delicious that he lost himself for a second. Then the giggles stopped, and so did the breeze.

His eyes opened suddenly and stared directly in front of him, feeling that something was wrong but not knowing how to react.  
The first thing that he noticed in the stillness of the place was that the sunlight was gone. He looked up, with a vague idea that now it was night, but couldn’t see the moon, or the stars. The sky was full of stormy clouds. Lightning flashed from behind the clouds, but no thunder followed.

“Come, we need to go now.” An unfamiliar voice called from behind and a hand touched his shoulder softly.

He got up from the ground and turned to see a hooded person. Shiny Icy blue eyes stared at him from the darkness that covered the person’s face. He didn’t know why but he felt compelled to do what they were saying. He nodded and the person took his hand, dragging him out of the clearing and into the forest.

While they walked through the trees, a roar echoed on the air, making Tsuna tremble.

“Worry not.” The person said.

“What is happening?” He asked.

His question was met by silence, as the person was focused on the path that they should take. Another roar echoed and the stranger stopped to look at the sky. Tsuna followed their stare.

More lightning flashed on the sky, but this time, the light highlighted something amidst the clouds. Wings. Tens of them. Possibly hundreds of them.

Tsuna’s heart beat faster and fear took over his mind and body. It was an army, and the lightning that flashed on the sky was not lightning. It was magic. A battle was happening on the sky and these winged creatures were going after them.

The hooded person released Tsuna’s hand and turned to face him. The sudden action made Tsuna shift his gaze from the sky to the stranger.

“I’m sorry.” The person said suddenly pulling Tsuna into a tight hug. Without knowing what to do, Tsuna returned the hug. It felt a bit cold.

“Why?” He asked.

“I’m sorry. It has to be done. We need to live on.” The person replied ignoring his question.

“I don’t understand.” Tsuna replied, but again the person didn’t answer.

They suddenly broke the hug and when Tsuna looked into the icy blue eyes, he saw a hint of sadness and guilty. He couldn’t debate over it for longer because he was pushed by the person, losing his balance and falling on his back.

He didn’t hit the grass or the ground. Instead, his back hit what seemed to be solid ice. It was cold to the point that it made him shiver. His head spun for a moment and his vision went dark, when he could see again, he didn’t see the sky. All he saw was a grey wall in front of him.

His head turned left and right, taking in the place where he was. A box. A coffin.

He tried to kick and push the walls. The one in front of him, below his feet, above his head. The ones on his sides, but they didn’t even move. He didn’t know why or how but his intuition screamed at him that he had been buried alive. Tsuna in response tried to scream for help, but when his mouth opened, no sound left him.

He was there. Someone that he trusted had buried him alive. The air would eventually run out and he would die.

Despair took him and tears filled his eyes.

**

Reborn watched from the doorframe as Tsuna tossed and turned in his sleep. A nightmare, no doubt.

He felt compelled to wake up the boy but decided against it. That day had been tiresome for all of them, and they needed rest. For that reason, he had knocked Tsuna down just after their talk with Verde. 

Who knew that the elevator would give him a panic attack on the first go anyway? He reasoned that the trip back to the ancient’s home, where they were staying for that night, would be much calmer if Tsuna was unconscious.

Hayato was with Yamamoto, making sure that his healing would go smoothly. He was so worried that he couldn’t sleep without triple checking the bandages and giving the swordsman another potion.

Ryohei was snoring loudly just a few rooms away. It was good that at least one of them could sleep so well.

“You aren’t sleeping.” A voice called from behind. Reborn turned to see Verde walking to him, holding his glasses on one hand while he rubbed his eye with the other.

“You look like shit, Verde.” Reborn said and Verde chuckled slightly.

“Look who’s saying.” Verde replied putting his glasses on again.

Reborn smiled a bit as Verde walked to stand beside him and look inside of Tsuna’s room. The boy had calmed down a few moments ago, now sleeping peacefully.

“You still think that we really need them to address this matter?” Verde asked.

“Yes.” Reborn replied. He knew that Verde didn’t believe in him about this, he was doubtful of the threat even after seeing for himself that the communication between the dragons had been severed.

Verde sighed. “Since I can’t convince you that this is unnecessary, I’ll be going to sleep. One of us have to be functional, after all.”

“I can be functional without sleep, thank you.” Reborn replied.

Verde shook his head. “As much as the human form provides a great economy of energy, I feel that you haven’t slept for a little more than one month.”

“I can function like this. If you can’t you are weak.”

“Don’t overdo yourself.” Verde replied with an unexpected serious expression.

Reborn perceived how unusual that was, but tried to brush his unease off with a smirk. “Huh, are you worried about me, Verde? I can take care of myself, you know.”

Verde huffed. “As stupid as always. Since the only one who can make you listen is the boss, I’ll be leaving.”

With that, he turned his back and left to the direction from where he came.

As much as Reborn couldn’t blame Verde for not believing in him, it still annoyed him to no end. The other dragon always acted on logic, never relying on instinct. Unless all the facts pointed to a certain affirmation, he wouldn’t accept it.

Reborn sighed and looked down the corridor to see Hayato leaving Yamamoto’s room and closing the door behind him. The boy looked at Reborn’s way and nodded, walking to his own room and disappearing behind the door.

He tipped his fedora down and headed to his own room. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to sleep, but he also wouldn’t stay all the night on Tsuna’s doorframe. Maybe he could read a book while he waited for the morning to come.

Given the information that Verde gave them as a reward for their service, the next day would be very interesting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I BET YOU'RE ALL SURPRISED THAT THIS UPDATE HAS APPEARED SO SOON. I know, I'm surprised too. I wasn't expecting this.  
> The next chapter will be an adventure my dudes. I still don't know when it'll appear though. I s2g I'm not dropping this fic until I finish it so if you are reading this until this point don't worry~  
> Thanks for reading, leaving kudos and everything else as always!


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